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news brian linn wins society for military history career award march 3 2023 brian linn wins society for military history career award brian linn has been selected by the council of the society for military history to receive the 2023 samuel eliot morison prize for his exemplary body of contributions to the field of military history over the course of his career faculty news
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news hoi-eun kim wins two major external grants march 3 2023 hoi-eun kim wins two major external grants hoi-eun has been selected for one of the national endowment for the humanities awards for faculty in the amount of $60 000 for his current book project japanese doctors in colonial korea (1910-1945): medicine as business education and imperial collaboration he has also been awarded a korean studies grant (in academic research category) from the academy of korean studies (aks) for his research faculty news
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news dr april hatfields next monograph boundaries of belonging: english jamaica and the spanish caribbean 1655–1715 march 3 2023 dr april hatfields next monograph boundaries of belonging: english jamaica and the spanish caribbean 1655–1715 dr hatfield reconstructs a wild world that goes beyond popular imagination in boundaries of belonging in the decades following englands 1655 conquest of spanish jamaica the western caribbean was the site of overlapping and competing claimsto land maritime spaces and people english jamaica in the midst of spanish american port towns and shipping lanes became central to numerous projects aimed at acquiring spanish american wealth those projects were backdrop to a wide-ranging movement of people who made their own claims to political membership in developing colonial societies and by extension to atlantic empires boundaries of belonging follows the stories of these individualslicensed traders smugglers freedom seekers religious refugees and pirateswho moved through the contested spaces of the western caribbean as they crossed into and out of rival imperial jurisdictions this mobile and diverse population influenced theories of imperial belonging and interpolity law faculty news
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news history peeps: andrew kirkendall professor of history march 2 2023 history peeps: andrew kirkendall professor of history dr andrew kirkendall did not plan to become a historian texas a&ms resident historian of latin america went to wesleyan university in 1976 with the goal of becoming an ethnomusicologist although he had some interest in history and even switched his major to the subject before graduating from wesleyan he struggled with what to do next accepted to the history graduate program at the university of north carolina chapel hill he dropped out within the year because he just couldnt force himself to become passionate about any particular topic so he moved to new york and took a clerical job at columbia university whose benefit package included one free course per semester dr kirkendall took portuguese to comprehend the lyrics of the brazilian music he enjoyed in 1984 he learned about an opportunity to teach english in brazil from a friend of a friend and eagerly took it up he perfected his grasp of portuguese by watching brazilian soap operas it was exciting time to be in the country beset by an economic crisis it could not solve the military government that had ruled brazil since 1964 was crumbling and would soon cede power to civilians dr kirkendall remembers the reaction of residents in his town there were people i talked to in their 40s who hadnt voted for president once in their life but who were about to he recalls even though the brazilian economy was collapsing there was tremendous optimism about the change back to civilian government after his return to the united states his experience in brazil motivated him to return to graduate school at unc chapel hill i wanted to understand how the country had gotten to be the way it was since accepting a professorship at texas a&m in 1997 dr kirkendall has retained his singular enthusiasm for latin america in 2007 he was awarded a college-level distinguished achievement award for teaching which he attributes to his energy and enthusiasm on the graduate level he is deeply proud of his phd student micah wright whom dr kirkendall praises as a tremendously talented individual whose dissertation recently received honorable mention for the prestigious oxford university usa dissertation prize at the annual conference of the society for historians of american foreign relations in 2022 to what historical figure would dr kirkendall like to say howdy if given the chance he would pick us presidential candidate bobby kennedy a childhood hero who figures in his latest book hemispheric alliances: liberal democrats and cold war latin america published this year by university of north carolina press id be very curious to talk to him about his political transformation after his brother was killed dr kirkendall says he was certainly not the same liberal icon in 1963 that he would become by 1968 how did he become the man who embraced cesar chavez visited workers in coal mines and poor southerners in their shacks patrick grigsby ‘27 history peeps
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news history peeps: shennette garrett-scott associate professor of history january 4 2023 history peeps: shennette garrett-scott associate professor of history before dr shennette garrett-scott became a scholar of african american business history she spent over a decade in the dallas mortgage industry until fed up with the real world she says she decided to pursue a career in which she could transform peoples lives more enduringly: teaching while she was in graduate school at the university of texas in austin the subprime mortgage industry crashed sparking her interest in the history of the us mortgage and financial industry this sense of having one foot in the private business world and one foot in the university now suffuses her work her first book banking on freedom (2019) focused on african american women in finance after the civil war and won three best-book awards dr garrett-scott is passionate about the rigorous application of history to community concerns her first public history project began almost by accident in 2010 while she was conducting research on the grand court of calanthe of texas for her dissertation founded in 1897 by formerly enslaved african american women this institution operated a life insurance company for nearly 125 years in 1948 it completed construction of its headquarters on dowling street (now emancipation avenue) in houston while researching the company dr garrett-scott learned that its board was applying for historical landmark status and so she volunteered to look over their application intrigued by the calantheans nearly forgotten story she became more and more involved with their fight for official recognition until it became something of a personal crusade with her help calanthe finally achieved landmark designation in 2012 even today shes still involved with the company in 2020 the grand court of calanthe went into receivership so she is now working to preserve the records and ensure that they are archived or digitized like some texas a&m professors dr garrett-scott commutes to campus from houston which is also her hometown although the drive is long she enjoys the time it gives her to listen to audiobooks and indulge a growing interest in black speculative (or science) fiction she is also teaching herself how to make craft projects such as wreaths and sewed items since she has always felt a handmade gift is so much more special than a bought one to what historical figure would dr garrett-scott like to say howdy given the chance she would choose famed abolitionist harriett tubman while many people know tubman for her role as a conductor on the underground railroad or as a spy for the union army dr garrett-scott would be most interested in asking about her efforts help freedwomen become economically self-sufficient some of these efforts included tubman using her own money to help freedwomen in beaufort south carolina set up a washhouse fully owned and operated by african american women as a place where they could be in business for themselves patrick grigsby 27 history peeps
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news dr takkara brunson wins major book award january 4 2023 dr takkara brunson wins major book award dr takkara brunsons book black women citizenship and the making of modern cuba (university of florida press 2021) was selected as one of two winners of the letitia woods brown book prize for african american womens history! this prize is bestowed annually by the association of black women historians and is a terrific and well-deserved recognition of dr brunsons important scholarship faculty news
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news history peeps: walter kamphoefner professor of history december 5 2022 history peeps: walter kamphoefner professor of history history peeps: walter kamphoefner professor of history growing up dr walter kamphoefner felt almost destined to become a historian he was born in the town of defiance missouri where daniel boone led a settlement effort in 1799 and he distinctly recalls eating picnic lunches under the shade of the boone historic home during this […] history peeps: walter kamphoefner professor of history growing up dr walter kamphoefner felt almost destined to become a historian he was born in the town of defiance missouri where daniel boone led a settlement effort in 1799 and he distinctly recalls eating picnic lunches under the shade of the boone historic home during this time he developed a lifelong fascination with german american history from stories of german settlers in missouri during the civil war whose staunch loyalty to the union held this important border state despite guerilla attacks by pro-confederate bushwhackers the first member of his family to go to college (concordia senior college in fort wayne) dr kamphoefner initially considered becoming a lutheran pastor he ultimately rejected this path because the social expectations of a pastor would have been too limiting instead he found himself increasingly drawn towards deep academic topics historical and otherwise he remembers being excited by the double helix on james watsons and francis cricks discovery of the structure of dna and how much he enjoyed discussing the 1968 book with friends but his main interests remained historical and before long he found himself loading up on history courses and applying to the history graduate program at the university of missouri in 1972 after a string of post-doc and assistant professor positions including a stint at germanys university of munster from 1978 to 1981 dr kamphoefner landed a permanent post at texas a&m in 1988 texas he believes has been a perfect place to study transatlantic german american immigration since it stands alone in the former confederacy as a state that attracted large numbers of immigrants in the swath of central texas where this migration was widespread in towns like fredericksburg new braunfels and boerne a dialect of german was the second most commonly language spoken until quite recently in fredericksburg kamphoefner notes german remained the most common language aside from english until 2000 when spanish surpassed it since earning his phd dr kamphoefner has continued to explore german american history from a transatlantic perspective he notes that he was using the transatlantic framework before transatlantic was even a term as a professor dr kamphoefner says that his highest calling is to combat historical ignorance by making history more accessible to the public beyond the numerous academic articles he has penned he frequently appears on radio programs to discuss his work and has even begun dabbling in new media with a guest appearance on the our missouri podcast his most recent book germans in america: a concise history (2021) is a synthesis account from decades of research he conducted on individual german american families to which historical figure would dr kamphoefner want to say howdy given the chance he would pick gert goebel a nineteenth century german missouri settler about whom he wrote a biography dr kamphoefner says he would enjoy the chance to have a face-to-face conversation and see if his impressions of goebel from a lifetime of study hold up patrick grigsby ‘27 history peeps
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news david vaught publishes scholarly biography of hall of fame baseball pitcher november 8 2022 david vaught publishes scholarly biography of hall of fame baseball pitcher david vaught has published his fourth research monograph spitter: baseballs notorious gaylord perry (texas a&m university press) check out the blurbs on the press website! written for both scholarly and general audiences spitter is the first full-length biography of hall of fame pitcher gaylord perrythe notorious spitballer it examines his rich and revealing life experience from his innovative ascent from rural poverty to baseball stardom to his subsequent descent to failure on the farm in the agricultural crisis of the 1980s the book explores among many themes the last generation to come of age in the segregated south the last generation of sharecroppers race relations in baseball after jackie robinson the ethics of cheating in the sport and more broadly links between southern rural culture and american popular culture in the second half of the twentieth century the book stems from his 2011 article in the journal of southern history faculty news
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news history peeps: dr terry anderson professor of history november 4 2022 history peeps: dr terry anderson professor of history terry anderson and his first phd student shane bernard late 1990s terry anderson has always been a man on the go a texas a&m professor since 1979 he has written books on the cold war the flying tigers social activism in the 1960s affirmative action and most recently the 1990s he has also held fellowship teaching positions in malaysia japan china ireland indonesia and the czech republic over the course of his career dr anderson attributes his love of adventure to his parents who drove him and his brother from minneapolis to mexico on vacations in the 1960s the trips werent always plush the family slept in the car on the road and the mexican resort industry was nearly nonexistent but dr anderson has happy memories of riding on horseback through the rural mexican countryside and picking fresh oranges between ciudad valles and tampico dr andersons favorite aspect of being a globe trotter is all of the great connections you make with interesting people for instance when teaching as a fulbright professor at the university of gadjah mada in indonesia he met a graduate student in nuclear engineering who was about to accept a fulbright to study at texas a&m dr anderson and his wife later made it a point to welcome this student to college station helping her navigate aggie life she then met and married a co-worker in college station and now works in vienna for the international atomic energy agency the two old friends still zoom frequently but dr anderson appreciates home too he stresses that he enjoys teaching in aggieland just as much as overseas aggie students are excellent scholars who often make me rethink american history dr anderson has published numerous books but some of his favorites include the united states great britain and the cold war 1944-1947 (1981) a book on the role of great britain in turning the truman administration away from cooperation to confrontation with the soviet union the movement and the sixties (1995) and the sixties (5th edition 2017) a well-regarded synthesis account of the decade that will be published in a sixth edition in 2023 to what historical figure would dr anderson like to say howdy given the chance this question makes him recall conversations with famous figures from the 1960s that he has brought to campus: beat poet allen ginsberg yippie jerry rubin anti-war activist abbie hoffman and psychedelic drug advocate timothy leary he remembers being struck by their insights into the 1960s counter-culture allen ginsberg once remarked to him that some of the longest-haired people i know are bald (meaning that being a hippie was a worldview not a matter of appearance) timothy leary who refused to talk about lsd on his visit to a&m in the early 1990s instead emphasized and correctly predicted the important role cell phones and personal computers would play in ensuing years patrick grigsby ‘27 history peeps
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news college of arts & sciences interviews dr sonia hernandez for national hispanic heritage month october 13 2022 college of arts & sciences interviews dr sonia hernandez for national hispanic heritage month refusing to forget in 1988 hispanic heritage month was enacted into law in order to acknowledge the contributions and histories of the american latino community for sonia hernández a texas a&m university history associate professor its one thing to remember; its another to refuse to forget to that end in 2014 she helped establish refusing to forget a multifaceted public history project that seeks to recover and disseminate a grimmer part of american history: anti-mexican violence in texas particularly along the border in the early 20th century to read the full story by heather rodriguez 04 click here faculty news
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news history peeps: mary speelman administrative associate v october 10 2022 history peeps: mary speelman administrative associate v mary speelman with woman's best friend daisy and bentley in the snow mary speelman the history departments administrative associate is not originally from bryan-college station but she promises that she got here as fast as she could born in raymondville texas she moved to aggieland with her family when she was four and hasnt looked back since although the town has grown considerably since her childhood to accommodate the burgeoning student population its best traditions have remained the same she believes particularly the strong sense of politeness and good manners that is rare now in too many other college towns her house is close to campus and on football game nights she can hear the fan cheers from kyle field whenever the aggies score this is not common however since one of marys great joys is attending home games in person even on days she hasnt nabbed a ticket shell often join friends and family for a tailgate bbq on simpson drill field mary previously worked as an administrator in the real estate field but wanted to work for an institution that put a higher priority on staff health and wellbeing she was drawn to texas a&m both by its community reputation and by the recommendations of numerous relatives who already worked for the system mary describes the friendly atmosphere that prevails in the history department business office as just like working with family and to some extent it has been her sister-in-law is an it specialist who retired from evans library when she joined a&m six years ago one of her nieces worked on main campus her husband now works in the maintenance department of the engineering extension program and her daughter-in-law has a job on rellis campus mary says she enjoys working with historians because of their fun stories including dr lorien footes fascinating research on animals who went to war the two enjoy chatting about their mutual love of dogs when not working mary likes to join her family for deep-sea fishing off the gulf coast although shes caught some impressive fish including a ladyfish recently that broke her fishing line her ambition is to catch the king fish of the region: an atlantic blue marlin to which historical figure would mary want to say howdy given the chance she wishes she could meet one of her distant ancestors from spain and ask them why they braved the dangers and challenges of emigration i would want to ask them why they made that choice mary speelman reflects patrick grigsby ‘27 history peeps
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news history peeps: dr brian rouleau associate professor of history september 12 2022 history peeps: dr brian rouleau associate professor of history dr rouleau early in his academic career in his office surrounded by books brian rouleau was not slow to embrace the aggie spirit one of his first acts upon arriving in 2010 was to purchase a pair of cowboy boots and begin two-stepping lessons with the texas aggie wranglers the universitys competitive dance group i never did master two-stepping he admits but it was a lot of fun with an impressive string of academic publications and a reputation for witty thought-provoking lectures he is now in the final stages of becoming a full professor dr rouleau credits his teaching style to a graduate advisor at the university of pennsylvania famed historian of indigenous america dr daniel richter dr rouleau relates that he felt apprehensive in the first year in the graduate program (i was convinced there had been a gross error in the admissions department) because of the quality of work produced by his graduate school colleagues and the eminence of his advisor richter mentored graduate students closely however and the two rapidly became close dr rouleau has modeled much of his scholarship on richters reading against the grain method which means reconstructing the world of a person or group who did not leave behind a personal record by gleaning clues from the writings of those who did this can be seen most clearly in dr rouleaus first book with sails whitening every sea: mariners and the making of an american maritime empire (2014) an account of the previously invisible history of american seafarers in the antebellum era at a time when the us diplomatic service was tiny american sailors were the principal points of cultural exchange between the united states and the rest of the world in a sense they were informal american diplomats while most of dr rouleaus sources were written by american sailors he uses richters methods to reconstruct various events from the perspectives of foreign peoples they encountered as well last year he published a second book empires nursery: childrens literature and the origins of the american century (2021) on the social impact of childrens literature during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when not teaching dr rouleau is a cinema fan and regularly scouts the tamu librarys free movie borrowing program located on the first floor of the evans annex his favorite movie is stanley kubricks the shining (1980) which he loves for its complex storyline and symbolism to what historical figure would dr rouleau like to say howdy given the chance he would be interested in meeting benjamin franklin because he was famously a very engaging conversationalist and entertaining storyteller but he is not certain that franklin would be a good source for reliable facts he strikes me as someone who would be coy about fact-finding questions regarding the past dr rouleau observes perhaps only reading against the grain could reveal deeper truths were this meeting to occur by patrick grigsby ‘27 history peeps
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news manuel (manny) grajales 22: the story of us august 26 2022 manuel (manny) grajales 22: the story of us for this first generation student history is more than just names and dates its the story of who we are by brittney nava ‘23 photos by anna burson 24 college of liberal arts from watching period piece films with his grandpa to leisurely analyzing pop culture through a historical lens the study of past events has always been a point of fascination for new york native manny grajales today he carries expert-level knowledge in the realm of 20th century us anti-war movements and latinx history grajales lengthened his official title by three letters this summer when he successfully defended his dissertation our fight is here: the puerto rican anti-war movement 1940-1975 his research however reflects more than just his specialized knowledge its a testament to his family his background and his love for the complexity of history a lot of the research questions for my dissertation are based on my family dynamics grajales said while growing up in a puerto rican household grajales was exposed to varying ideologies regarding the principles of war on one hand many of his relatives hold a religious-based disdain for killing in any context; on the other hand grajales noted a strong tradition of military service dating back to when his grandfather served in panama during the korean war my abuela has this big picture with my abuelo in the center in his uniform theres like 15 or 20 [relatives] in that picture showing something a few scholars have called a ‘hispanic tradition of service grajales said and the pride that comes with that doesnt mute the pride of being puerto rican either as military service has historically been linked with notions of citizenship grajales was curious about what propels people to resist it [i had] questions about the viability of military service as an escape; the pride of military service as an identity marker without losing cultural ethnic or racial identity; and what led people to reject something so tied to active citizenship grajales said while his family played a huge role in inspiring his research he also credits them greatly for his accomplishments my family was very pivotal to my success grajales shared the big thing is theyve supported me through this journey even when they dont understand elements of it which even i dont understand certain elements of it still a bit of advice to graduate students coming in or even undergrads who are thinking of going to grad school or going into professional life entering a new space is scary and difficult especially if you feel that you are not seen but you can find your community grajales shared it takes a little work and sometimes its frustrating but theyre here were here navigating academia as a first generation latino student as a first-generation college student grajales has been navigating unfamiliar waters in academia but not without the help of supportive faculty when i went back to school for my bachelors at texas a&m university-commerce as a non-traditional student of 26 i ran into faculty that took the time to mentor me as a first-generation student grajales shared they guided me and my curiosity while looking into graduate schools grajales was very interested in texas a&m university but the decision was cemented when he attended a conference on campus and met felipe hinojosa who would later become his advisor before id made my full decision i was going through some personal stuff and he cared about my humanity as well as me reaching my potential as a scholar to me that idea of building community is pivotal grajales said i knew once i met him that this was the place i needed to be the critical role that empathetic faculty play in a students success has been crystal clear for grajales especially during his time working toward his phd it was scary being a first-generation student you dont know any of these processes but i was fortunate to have an advisor who guided me through the whole process grajales shared [hinojosa] was also a first-gen student so he had to navigate a lot of these waters too beyond faculty grajales also greatly credits the community of latinos that he encountered during his time at texas a&m who helped him feel more seen as a minority student a bit of advice to graduate students coming in or even undergrads who are thinking of going to grad school or going into professional life entering a new space is scary and difficult especially if you feel that you are not seen but you can find your community grajales shared it takes a little work and sometimes its frustrating but theyre here were here grajales next steps though his time in aggieland has come to a close grajales will carry the aggie spirit with him to the university of north texas where hell begin as a history lecturer teaching a mexican american history class in addition to survey classes hell have the opportunity to inspire his students to see the intrinsic value of studying history its the story of us its the story of who we are grajales said you can put it in a national context but if you look deeper even our own family histories tell the story of how we fit into the broader picture graduates news
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news brian linn publishes book chapter in empires violent end august 9 2022 brian linn publishes book chapter in empires violent end brian linn has a new book chapter out the normal order of things: contextualizing ‘technical violence in the netherlands-indonesia war co-authored with azarja harmmany in empires violent end: comparing british dutch and french wars of decolonization 1945-1962 ed by bart luttikhuis and thijs brocades zaalberg (ithaca ny: cornell university press 2022) 120-40 brian and his co-author contribute to a collection that advances a broader understanding of violence in the wars of decolonization and an appreciation for the similarities in how different colonial powers utilized forms of institutional impunity to promote extreme violence in more good news dr linn has been appointed to the marine corps university board of advisors a federal advisory board requiring nomination and confirmation at the department of defense the marine corps university offers a variety of educational opportunities for enlisted marines officers interagency civilians and international military it has over 85 000 students enrolled in various resident and distance programs in any given year taught by close to 600 civilian military and contracted faculty three of mcus resident programs are accredited by the southern association of colleges and schools commission on colleges to offer masters degrees and they have articulation agreements with several other universities mcu operates from 6 main academies and 7 campuses in virginia north carolina texas california hawaii and okinawa congratulations brian! faculty news
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news history peeps: dr albert s broussard professor of history august 8 2022 history peeps: dr albert s broussard professor of history dr broussard meeting dr john hope franklin at a speech in the latters honor dr al broussard has witnessed epic changes in his time here at texas a&m university with a ba from stanford university in 1973 and a phd from duke in 1977 dr broussard first arrived at the tamu history department in 1985 his job upon being hired was to create the universitys first african american history courses since then he has continued to teach the same course he created then and has had the satisfaction of seeing this historical subfield develop considerably since the 1980s early on dr broussards career overlapped with the classical phase of the civil rights movement he remembers sit-in protests at the stanford university administration offices during the early 1970s to encourage the admission of a higher percentage of african american candidates he once attended a debate at the university where one speaker argued quite seriously in favor of white supremacy by appealing to phrenology phrenology was a bogus pseudoscience that claimed different races have different personality types and intellectual potential based on the shape of their skull at that time scholarship on african american history was only just beginning to be taken seriously dr broussard reflects when i graduated from duke in 1977 there still wasnt a scholarly biography of martin luther king jr this was only a decade after he had been assassinated now scholars can draw on so many excellent accounts likewise he notes there were few academic histories of slavery those that did exist often excluded accounts by enslaved persons considering them unreliable instead older scholars relied exclusively on sources written by slaveowners or other white southerners that presented a biased quasi-fictional history of slavery fortunately many of these flaws have been rectified in the time since dr broussard started teaching his introductory us history to 1877 class now reads frederick douglasss autobiography–as do many introductory survey courses throughout it all dr broussard has maintained the same high standards and always pushes his students to excel according to him i dont fail many students but i dont give many as either if someone gets an a in one of my courses i dont say they ‘got it i say they ‘earned it because its not easy to get that grade off campus dr broussard is an avid long-distance runner and enjoys competing in local college station races his guilty pleasure is new running shoes and he regularly goes through three pairs each year to what historical figure would dr broussard like to say howdy given the chance he has actually met the man he would have chosen: john hope franklin the author of from slavery to freedom (1947) a pioneering book on the african american experience franklin served as a role model for him throughout his career one of the proudest moments of his life dr broussard says was being asked to give a speech honoring franklin when the latter came to visit texas a&m in the 1980s today a picture of them shaking hands sits prominently on his desk asked what he said to the eminent historian at their meeting dr broussard mused in situations like that you usually let the other guy do the talking by patrick grigsby ‘27 history peeps
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news history peeps: graduate students attend the smh conference july 15 2022 history peeps: graduate students attend the smh conference tamu history students pose for photo at the 2022 society for military history conference texas a&m university students made a strong showing at the society of military history (smh) conference held in fort worth texas this past april 28th through may 1st with sixteen students presenting original research as one of only six us universities designated as a senior military colleges texas a&m has a long history of excellence in military studies in the most recent incoming graduate class five out of eight students had a focus on military history because of this the society of military history gathering is widely considered the most important conference of the year for the department although sixteen presentations was an unprecedented showing according to dr roger reese director of graduate studies this past spring tamu papers ranged from the fall of rome in the fifth century to the us intervention in somalia in 1992 some students argued in favor of a reevaluation of traditional narratives others explored the social history of a well-known military event while still others presented operational accounts of a given campaign or deployment presentations took place at the opulent fort worth omni hotel as well as the nearby fort worth convention center dr brian linn and dr lorien foote chaired panels and dr foote hosted a welcome lunch for tamu students on the first full day of the conference she also provided what many considered to be the highlight of the trip: an excursion to a country dance club later that night brian donlon class of 27 and a us marine studying at a&m under the commandant of the marine corps strategist program (cmcsp) was among the attendees his paper a different ballgame: the marine corps and nato cold weather exercises in norway 1976-1986 featured original research on a little-known us deployment to norway during the cold war to deter soviet aggression attending the conference for the first time he praised the depth of tenured military historians and aspiring military historians who attended and in almost every case presented from texas a&m donlon noted i dont think any other school could match it fellow attendee kaitlyn ross class 26 analyzed the smh schedule ahead of time and made a word document showing presentations by tamu scholars that was widely shared because of her efforts graduate students were able to more easily support their fellow aggies and learn about their research one panel that featured ian seavey (class of ‘23) laurence nelson (class of 23) and ben brewster (class of 24) nearly ran out of chairs once the entire remaining tamu contingent arrived fortunately some students graciously offered to stand in the back and the presentations went off without any further hitch patrick grigsby ‘27 history peeps
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news adam seipp publishes article in war & society july 8 2022 adam seipp publishes article in war & society new associate dean of the college of arts & sciences adam seipp published fulda gap: a board game west german society and a battle that never happened 1975-85 in the premier journal in his field war & society new associate dean of the college of arts & sciences adam seipp just published fulda gap: a board game west german society and a battle that never happened 1975-85 by a premier journal in his field war & society doi: 101080/0729247320222087401 the link to the article is here war and society this fascinating article explores the reception of the american-made board game fulda gap: the first battle of the next war in the federal republic of germany in the early 1980s the german peace movement used the game which depicted conventional chemical and nuclear war on german territory as a potent symbol of what they believed to be american and nato disregard for german lives and sovereignty the controversy over the game reflected the changing character of german-american relations during the ‘second cold war and increasing concerns among germans about the possible consequences of superpower conflict in central europe congratulations adam! faculty news
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news history peeps – dr sonia hernandez associate professor of history june 27 2022 history peeps – dr sonia hernandez associate professor of history dr hernández far left front row as a jr rotc high school student in pharr texas as a professor of the us-mexico borderlands dr sonia hernándezs enthusiasm for history is deeply personal the child of mexican immigrants hernández was the first member of her family born in the united states she remembers growing up in a colonia or unincorporated town of the rio grande valley near mcallen texas she was first drawn towards her scholarship by a desire to better understand her own familys past and how the intersection of mexican and american history influenced their story dr hernández argues that educators should seek first and foremost to spread conocimiento a word that denotes awareness of a historical figures idiosyncratic experiences her goal is to help students see the contemporary value of learning history and to situate their own personal stories within a larger historical narrative her most recent publications include for a just and better world: engendering anarchism in the mexican borderlands (2021 with the university of illinois press) and co-edited an anthology reverberations of racial violence: critical reflections on the history of the border (2021 with the university of texas press); hernández is working on her third monograph por un compatriota: transnational networks state violence and the case of gregorio cortez that examines the tragic history of state-sanctioned violence including the race-based lynching of ethnic mexicans in the us-mexico borderland from a gendered labor and greater norteño perspective dr hernández has been a professor at texas a&m for eight years and remembers being drawn to the university for its committed support for latina(o) studies at most public university its rare for a history department to have more than one expert on this subfield by contrast the tamu history department boasts five professors whose expertise is listed as latinx & mexican american it also participates in conjunction with other departments in the liberal arts college in a chicano and chicana working group for graduate students and faculty to discuss their research and meet likeminded scholars influenced by her maternal grandfathers career as both rancher and musician dr hernández is also a regular on the dance floor since her days in public school she says she loves dancing to country tejano conjunto pop or really any other genre of music thats being played to what historical figure would dr hernández like to say howdy if given the chance she would like to meet texas state house representative jose tomas ‘jt canales canales was the only mexican american texas state legislator in 1919 when he led a movement to investigate unprovoked violence by the texas rangers against tejano americans opponents denounced him as a disloyal texan and even a greaser from brownsville but the canales investigation would go on to produce overwhelming evidence of ranger misconduct shocked into action the legislature reconstituted the rangers as professional police force with safeguards to prevent future violence against tejano communities as a figure she admires for his steady resolve even when attacked dr hernández would want to ask him how it felt as a powerful legislator to have his professionalism and citizenship questions just for being mexican american and how he maintained his calm demeanor (patrick grigsby) faculty history peeps
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news history peeps: dr stephen b riegg assistant professor of history may 29 2022 history peeps: dr stephen b riegg assistant professor of history professor stephen riegg dances with a costumed interpreter of enlightenment tzarina catherine the great at catherines palace outside st petersburg russia during more peaceful times history sometimes seems abstract and distant but other times its relevancy is blindingly obvious no one doubts the current salience of dr stephen rieggs work an expert on russian history he has recently published russias entangled embrace: the tsarist empire and the armenians 1801-1914 on the romanov dynastys relationship with minority ethnic groups in the caucasus region like many he was shocked by russias recent invasion of ukraine and is concerned for the ukrainian people who are the number one victims of this russian aggression as a historian hes also mystified by the irrationality of russian president vladimir putins actions says dr riegg i cannot think of a single way that this is a boon a win anything for russia – not militarily not economically not even socially since this is not unifying the russian people behind the war its an unbelievable catastrophe and the russian people will live with the fallout for years to come riegg has a deep emotional connection to and passion for his subject as he is quick to acknowledge in fact he argues that passion is almost a necessity when teaching at the university level since your students know if you are enthused or fascinated by a topic and will give you their attention if you are he credits this insight to two undergraduate history professors he had at the university of kansas eve levin and gerald mikkelson whose heartfelt love for russian history inspired him to pursue graduate study in the subject dr riegg has taught at texas a&m for six years and considers himself lucky to work with aggies who are almost always driven and excited to learn he also appreciates the universitys healthy enthusiasm for traditions and a strong school culture outside of the classroom dr riegg enjoys reading mystery novels particularly those of agatha christie whose full canon of eighty books he aspires to finish one day he also has a third degree-brown belt in judo a sport he originally took up in graduate school to burn off steam and distract him from reading dry historical theory although he hasnt competed at judo since covid hit he hopes to begin again soon to what historical figure would dr riegg like to say howdy if given the chance dr riegg picks catherine the great the eighteenth-century tsarina of russia since she was an enlightened despot and id like to better understand her perspective and how she ruled on a day-to-day basis he particularly credits catherine for implementing modernization reforms in the face of strong opposition from the russian nobility which took enormous political savvy and shows that even absolute leaders have to rule with at least some buy-in from their subjects (patrick grigsby) history peeps uncategorized
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news andy kirkendall publishes hemispheric alliances may 23 2022 andy kirkendall publishes hemispheric alliances dr andrew j kirkendall has just published his latest book hemispheric alliances: liberal democrats and cold war latin america with the university of north carolina press please check out the book at the unc press website here https://uncpressorg/book/9781469668017/hemispheric-alliances/ in hemispheric alliances dr kirkendall explores how liberal democrats sought to create new models for us-latin american relations that went beyond containing communism in an age of decolonization and in response to the ideological challenge of the cuban revolution the kennedy administration introduced the alliance for progress which promised large-scale socioeconomic reform and democracy promotion in latin americamoral leadership over mere militarism during the tumult of the vietnam war in the late 1960s and early 1970s liberal democrats in particular embraced human rights both the alliance for progress and human rights assumed a special us responsibility for latin america and significantly complicated foreign policy making kirkendall finds that the alliance for progress and human rights emphasis left mixed legacies this latin american focus of liberal democrats was dissolved by the nixon reagan and bush administrations who favored a more militant containment of communism hemispheric alliances comes with high praise dr jeremy suri the mack brown distinguished chair of history and public affairs at the university of texas writes of hemispheric alliances this is the best account of american liberal efforts to pursue democratic reforms in latin america during the cold war every serious observer of us foreign policy should read this book news
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news olga dror…from russia to aggieland may 13 2022 olga dror…from russia to aggieland a polyglot scholar and mother who found her way from russia to texas a&m university dr olga dror is a professor of history at texas a&m university by kira schwarz ‘22 olga dror always wanted to lead an interesting life at her primary school in leningrad (now saint petersburg) russia she was already studying english as a second-grader she wanted to be a pilot but it was not feasible back then for a young woman so she found out that the school of oriental studies at leningrad state university gave preference to prospective male students over females dror decided to take it up as a challenge and in 1982 became a student of vietnam there the main attraction was that their first language was vietnamese the second was chinese and the third was french so i thought that it might be interesting challenging and engaging dror explained moreover the relationship between the soviet union and vietnam was quite good because they were both socialist countries however dror had trouble finding work in her field because of anti-semitism in the soviet union i was very tired of the system dror recalled maybe if im not good then its a competition – i lose but if i am excluded by definition it just doesnt work thus when the rise of the iron curtain in 1989 made the emigration from the soviet union possible dror left in may 1990 for israel she arrived in jerusalem with big plans to continue her studies of vietnam at the hebrew university there but she was informed that her ma degree from leningrad state university in vietnamese studies was the highest degree in this field in israel and if she wanted to continue her studies of vietnam she would need to go to the united states france canada or australia at that time anyone emigrating from the soviet union was stripped of their citizenship and had to surrender their passport dror said instead one would be given a piece of paper that said that one was a stateless person allowed to leave the soviet union we were allowed to take $300 with us so when i was advised to go to study elsewhere i simply did not have any financial means to do so moreover i like all of us in the soviet union did not have any idea about the western system of education and how to enter a graduate school there to find a program to write there to take tests et cetera so i said ‘no ive just arrived i am not going to study vietnam elsewhere the university suggested dror study international relations instead which she eagerly accepted just in time for a huge shift in the worlds stage the subsequent disintegration of the soviet union in 1991 meant that there were now 15 new states to be negotiated with as well as possible future relations with arab countries the ministry of foreign affairs was recruiting people to work for new embassies dror became the consul of israel to the baltic states and could now explore other universities to continue her education i was accepted at cornell which is the best school in my field dror said i arrived in the united states in 1997 it was very difficult for me i arrived with my son who was four and a half years old at the time but probably the most difficult thing was trying to understand what people were saying because what i studied at school were british accents i came to new york city and they had completely different accents after getting a ma in history in 2000 and a phd in southeast asian and east asian history in 2003 dror accepted an endowed chair for the most prominent young historian as a visiting assistant professor in the clements department of history at southern methodist university in dallas in 2004 she became an assistant professor at texas a&m i arrived in college station as soon as i could says dror i love the university i love the students i think this is the best part of my job working with young people it keeps us young sometimes there are definitely challenges but its always very gratifying to work with students since settling down in aggieland dror continues traveling and has held a number of fellowships at institutions around the world such as institut détudes avancées de nantes in france and the national humanities center in the coming academic year she will be a fellow of collegium de lyon at the french institute for advanced studies system and then a senior fellow at the kyoto center for southeast asian studies in japan currently dror is working on a book about ho chi minh a historical character whose mystifying personality fascinates her faculty news
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news history peeps: ian seavey phd student april 25 2022 history peeps: ian seavey phd student a florida native with a bachelors degree from the university of tampa ian seavey remembers the culture shock he experienced when he first saw texans on campus in western boots and cowboy hats i really thought that was just a funny stereotype the graduate student relates i had no idea anyone actually still dressed like that today in the four years since then seavey has become something of an expert on another texas phenomena: hurricanes specifically his research examines the municipal and federal responses to the 1899 san ciriaco hurricane in puerto rico and the 1900 great storm of galveston these back-to-back disasters devastated two previously vibrant gulf communities and caused as many as 16 000 fatalities although he had known about both events since taking an undergraduate course on natural disasters the once-in-a-century hurricane season of 2017 confirmed seaveys interest over the course of that autumn five years ago hurricanes harvey irma and maria devastated texas florida and puerto rico respectively they led seavey to want to learn more about american disaster response including the ways that politics influenced recovery and rebuilding seaveys findings will appear in the journal of advanced military studies later this spring under the title a tale of two storms: progressive era disaster relief in puerto rico and texas 1899-1900 in it he argues that the 1899/1900 hurricane relief efforts led to innovative administrative reforms that made rebuilding efforts more efficient but also reinforced existing power structures the san ciriaco hurricane hit puerto rico only a year after the united states had begun administering the island in 1898 seaveys work shows that us military governor brig gen george davis saw the hurricane as an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of american rule compared with the inept spanish colonial government davis implemented the island first relief program following 400 years of neglect by spain he encouraged growers to shift from coffee to sugar production since the latter crop was more resistant to hurricane winds yet davis also chose to funnel this aid through local plantation owners without strong oversight many landowners stole the funds others distributed the aid intended for workers but only to solidify their place at the top of the islands quasi-feudal social structure similarly the municipal government of galveston responded to the great storm of 1900 by reorganizing its corrupt city council into a city commission free of gridlock the commission government built a ten-mile-long sea wall and raised all of galveston 17 feet on the other hand it also gerrymandered the new larger electoral districts to exclude galvestons african american voters after this the commission would be all-white until the city government was reformed again in 1960 although seavey is hard at work on his dissertation this semester he still finds time to captain the history departments official softball team in the college station rec leagues the team that seavey co-founded last semester had a respectable 1-1 record at the time of publication according to at least one fellow graduate student seavey is the best shortstop in the entire rec league hands down and is famous for his play-ending centerfield catches he also writes music and plays in a local metal band to what historical figure would he like to say howdy if given a chance famed boxer muhammed ali for so many different reasons would be seaveys first choice for one thing he was one of the first big-time athletes to leverage his fame into awareness of other important issues like civil rights and the draft resistance movement but he did that for so many different categories too – he was also an advocate for religious freedom as a muslim and he was just a great boxer too (patrick grigsby 27) history peeps
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news sonia hernandez wins oah book award april 19 2022 sonia hernandez wins oah book award dr sonia hernández won the philip taft labor history book award for her monograph for a just and better world: engendering anarchism in the mexican borderlands 1900–1938 with the university of illinois press! the book link is here: https://wwwpressuillinoisedu/books/catalog/88twt5rb9780252044045html sponsored by cornell universitys school of industrial & labor relations in collaboration with the labor and working-class history association (lawcha) this prize honors the late philip taft one of the foremost historians of the american labor movement particularly the american federation of labor the awards committee wrote this beautifully argued study of feminist politics in borderland communities provides a model for how to present transnational scholarship lawcha announced the award during the oah meeting in boston at its own awards ceremony here is the press release: https://wwwilrcornelledu/taft-award/award-recipients congratulations sonia!! news
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news lorien foote wins oah book award april 19 2022 lorien foote wins oah book award dr lorien foote the patricia & bookman peters professor in history won the oahs civil war and reconstruction book award for her 2021 monograph rites of retaliation: civilization soldiers and campaigns in the civil war with the university of north carolina press this prestigious oah award goes to the most original book on the coming of the civil war the civil war years or the era of reconstruction dr footes prize committee argued that rites of retaliation is as innovative and provocative as it is impeccably researched and cogently argued in this book lorien focuses on a military and legal concept that structured ritualized sets of threats and responses that have long been overlooked by historians these formal ritualized exchanges during the fog of war could enable restraint or contribute to an acceleration of violence a part of dr footes particular brilliance on this book is the way in which it innovatively fleshes out the role of black soldiers centrality to how confederate and union forces worked out the concept of retaliation in the southeastern theatre of the civil war if youd like to read more the award dedication is on pg 8 of the oah awards program here https://wwwoahorg/site/assets/files/8213/2022_oah_awards_ceremony_program_digital_copypdf news
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news revolutionary women of color april 19 2022 revolutionary women of color second wave conference participants for women of color in america racism and sexism can only be understood in an intersectional framework in late march the history department hosted a two-day conference the second wave: revolutionary women of color to advance such scholarship and honor three pioneer activists from the 1960s and 1970s the signature event was the pioneer panel at annenberg presidential conference center featuring presentations by frances beal of california martha cortera of texas and yvonne swan of washington (ms beal unfortunately fell ill before the event so professor ula taylor of the university of california at berkeley delivered her prepared remarks) the panel sought to disprove a common myth that the idea that second wave feminism was a white middle-class movement in which women of color took little interest or were excluded beals comments concerned her own difficult decision to bring up sexism within the black civil rights movement after the publication of eldridge cleavers book soul in ice (1968) which blamed black women for being too assertive and advised greater subservience beal founded the womens liberation committee of the student non-violent coordinating committee (sncc) in 1969 martha cotera spoke movingly of her memories growing up in a deeply traditional mexican household and being confused even as a child by the ways that gender roles were assigned indiscriminately regardless of talent or interests she described her later work as a founder of the la raza unida party in 1970 and her efforts to encourage chicanas to run for political office in the 1970s yvonne swan a member of the sinixt tribe spoke about the harrowing experience of being convicted of second-degree murder in 1972 for shooting a sex offender as he broke into her dwelling and advanced towards her and her children prosecutors argued that swan should have used her fists instead of a gun as a reasonable man would do feminist attorneys successfully took her case to the washington supreme court establishing an important legal precedent that helped generations of women afterwards on the second day of the conference academic panels discussed the long-range effects of 1970s activism and methodological considerations for studying protest movements scholars came from universities around the nation including columbia university city university of new york university of california university of texas university of miami and james madison university dr elizabeth cobbs melbern glasscock professor organized the event with help from first-year graduate student margaret gregory and department administrator kelly cook the conference was generously sponsored by africana studies the carlos cantu hispanic endowment college of liberal arts department of history department of international studies department of sociology glasscock center for humanities research glasscock chair in american history latino/a and mexican american studies office of graduate and professional studies race and ethnic studies and women and gender studies patrick grigsby news
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news sonia hernandez wins aha-neh grant for public history project refusing to forget april 4 2022 sonia hernandez wins aha-neh grant for public history project refusing to forget congratulations to sonia hernandez who has won an aha-neh grant to sustain and advance the work of historical organizations through the american rescue plan act of 2021 for refusing to forget refusingtoforgetorg which she co-founded in 2014 https://wwwhistoriansorg/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/aha-neh-sharp-grant-recipients news
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news history peeps: dr jessica herzogenrath instructional assistant professor april 4 2022 history peeps: dr jessica herzogenrath instructional assistant professor dr herzogenrath at the 2021 brazos contemporary dance festival(photo credit: diane cahill bedford) dr jessica herzogenraths fascination with history began at a young age but not in the classroom it began in her grandmothers home reading notes on every antique and artifact salvaged from the local community that had made its way into her grandmothers care history was the family passion passed down from grandmother to mother to dr herzogenrath and now to her son with history part of everyday life dr herzogenrath began to explore its connections with other her interests specifically her love of dance before coming to texas a&m university dr herzogenrath worked as a dancer and choreographer across the united states in a variety of styles from hip hop to contemporary to jazz she has danced in houston chicago and new york working with many of the movers and shakers in the dance world including as mikhail baryshnikov with whom she interned in 2008 when she entered the phd program at texas a&m in 2009 she pursued the history of dance as a cultural practice that defines and shapes societies humans have long used dance for self-expression and social cohesion and even as a tool for protest specifically her research examines dance and women in higher education during the progressive era she hopes her work will help restore voices (and bodies) not traditionally captured in historical records while working as a historian she still finds time to perform most recently at the brazos contemporary dance festival in september 2021 to what historical figure would dr hudson like to say howdy given the chance dr herzogenrath would like to sit down with ann barzel barzel was a twentieth century dancer critic writer teacher and advocate for the art form dr herzogenrath credits barzel with inspiring much of her current research and would want to ask barzel what compelled her to become so involved from the 1940s through the 1970s what were those unusual times like by kaitlyn ross 23 history peeps
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news faith and power – latino religious politics since 1945 march 28 2022 faith and power – latino religious politics since 1945 a one-day symposium both in-person and online via zoom bringing together historians from across the country and world to discuss the significance of latino religious politics well discuss how broader currents involving immigration refugee policies de-industrialization the rise of the religious left and right and the chicano puerto rican and immigrant rights movements spurred political engagement among latino religious actors join us for what will be stimulating conversations on the intersections of religion and politics in latino communities and how theyve shaped struggles for justice in the twentieth century april 14 2022 9:00 am – 4:00 pm laah 255 sponsored by: religious studies program college of liberal arts department of history carlos h cantu (hispanic education & opportunity endowment) melbern g glasscock center for humanities research news
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news animal histories of the american civil war symposium march 24 2022 animal histories of the american civil war symposium the first-of-its kind symposium exploring how the relationship between humans and animals shaped the american civil war and how the war shaped the life of animals we will feature expert civil war historians in conversation with tamus animal studies scholars date: april 08 2022 location: glasscock building room 311 time: 9:30 am5:00 pm click here to view flyer and register for the luncheon sponsored by: melbern g glasscock center for humanities research melbern g glasscock chair in liberal arts gladys h abell professor liberal arts patricia & bookman peters chair louisiana state university press conferences news
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news ashley vance named a 2022 hww career diversity fellow march 11 2022 ashley vance named a 2022 hww career diversity fellow phd candidate ashley vance has been named a 2022 humanities without walls career diversity workshop fellow twenty-five doctoral students representing twenty-one higher education institutions nationwide will attend the workshop this summer in ann arbor michigan the fellows will engage in a series of sessions talks informational interviews and site visits hosted by the university of michigans institute for the humanities congratulations ashleyand thanks for all your good work as the history departments career diversity fellow https://emailsillinoisedu/newsletter/1755630665html news
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news the second wave: revolutionary women of color march 9 2022 the second wave: revolutionary women of color the history department is hosting a panel featuring three pioneers of the second wave of feminism frances beal martha cotera and yvonne swan below are the registration links for the evening panel followed by the daytime conference click here to view conference flyer invitation to pioneers panel revolutionary women of color pioneers panel march 24 2022 5:00pm–7:00pm annenberg presidential conference center invitation to second wave: revolutionary women of color conference march 25 2022 8:30am–5:30pm the george hotel college station texas this conference is sponsored by: africana studies carlos cantu hispanic endowment college of liberal arts department of history department of international studies department of sociology glasscock center for humanities research glasscock chair in american history latino/a and mexican american studies office of graduate and professional studies race and ethnic studies institute women and gender studies conferences news
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news history peeps: dr jonathan coopersmith professor of history march 2 2022 history peeps: dr jonathan coopersmith professor of history technology and history may seem like opposites to many people but not here at texas a&m the history department is fortunate to have dr jonathan coopersmith who explores the long history of technology including both its successes and failures and how technology has shaped the human experience across national boundaries his jubilance and creativity have taken him across centuries of study and around the world faxed: the rise and fall of the fax machine his book on the global phenomenon of the fax machine took him to france russia england germany and italy he even spent a whole year on a fulbright fellowship in tokyo japan many students pursue study abroad but for professors its a bit different not only did dr coopersmith move to japan in 2008 but so did his wife and two children then ages 9 and 12 before going dr coopersmith returned to school himself to study japanese at a&m while he picked up enough to get by his children were far more successful at learning the language the research he did in tokyo shaped faxed and the time abroad shaped all of the coopersmiths recently he helped create a study abroad program to take a&m undergraduates to japan to study the history of technology and japanese culture to what historical figure would dr coopersmith like to say howdy given the chance dr coopersmith has a hard time choosing between thomas jefferson thomas edison and of course the inventor of the fax machine alexander bain however thomas jefferson wins out dr coopersmith would like to discuss the creation of the university of virginia and jeffersons role as the father of invention in america the a&m professor would also like to ask the former president to square the contradictions between slavery and the declaration of independence faculty history peeps
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news dr rebecca schloss publishes an article in early american studies february 14 2022 dr rebecca schloss publishes an article in early american studies dr rebecca hartkopf schloss has just published furthering their family interests: women french colonial households and mobility in the nineteenth-century atlantic in early american studies 20:1 (winter 2022) 113-151 this article examines how three elite white women furthered their families social and economic status around the nineteenth-century atlantic basin they and the enslaved and free african- descended servants who accompanied them adapted eighteenth-century strategies for household advancement in response to both the increased constraints on french womens legal and economic positions in post-napoleonic france and to different social legal and political responses to racialized chattel slavery throughout the french caribbean for elite white women such adaptations included not only more frequent travel around the atlantic but also extended periods apart from other family members for the enslaved and free african-descended servants who moved between colonial and metropolitan france differing social and legal regimes provided opportunities for personal and family advancement in particular de facto freedom the link to the article is here https://easpennpressorg/resources/current-issue-abstracts/ congratulations rebecca! faculty news
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news standing in solidarity against anti-aapi racism: a symposium february 10 2022 standing in solidarity against anti-aapi racism: a symposium the asian american studies task force presents: standing in solidarity against anti-aapi racism: a symposium march 9 – 10 2022 to view flyer click here * separate registration for each event is required …see article* wednesday march 9 morning session: register here: https://tamuzoomus/meeting/register/tjwodeqvqtkre9srvyjogzxc4wrbskphng2t 9:45am-10am: introductory remarks dr vanita reddy (texas a&m university) 10am-11:30am: symposium keynote dr kandice chuh (city university of new york) afternoon session: register here: https://tamuzoomus/meeting/register/tjmqfugvrtsre9y7y2znxta7n_c3owjg97cx 3pm – 4:30pm: building aapi studies programs panel dr jason oliver chang (university of connecticut) dr jennifer ho (university of colorado) dr cn le (university of massachusetts amherst) dr kimberly mckee (grand valley state university) thur march 10 morning session: register here: https://tamuzoomus/meeting/register/tjaqc-6ort8vetj98m0ba-kbnugvpswjxibz 11am – 12:30pm: asian american pedagogies panel dr chaitanya lakkimsetti (texas a&m university) dr rachel lim (texas a&m university) dr aggie yellow horse (arizona state university) afternoon session register here: https://tamuzoomus/meeting/register/tjcpde2trzmshdabwprxxutfwc7nljpr5ew5 1pm – 2:30pm: standing together against anti-aapi racism at tamu panel dr jeehee han (texas a&m university) dr claire carly-miles (texas a&m university) anneke snyder (texas a&m university) hyunjoo yu (texas a&m university) co-sponsored by the department of history department of english english graduate student association department of multicultural services the race and ethnic studies institute and the melbern g glasscock center for humanities research we thank the asian presidents council for publicity and marketing materials conferences news
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news history peeps: dr elizabeth cobbs melbern g glasscock professor of history february 4 2022 history peeps: dr elizabeth cobbs melbern g glasscock professor of history dr elizabeth cobbs grew up down a two-mile dirt road on the far outskirts of san diego california as a child she vividly remembers the weekly drive to the local library miles away to check-out novels featuring heroines of ancient egypt medieval england and revolutionary france after returning home she would make a peanut butter sandwich to fuel herself for a long literary adventure to faraway times and places before attending college dr cobbs worked as an activist to promote equal rights for youth and women employed by various nonprofit organizations at twenty-two she enrolled at the university of california san diego majoring in literature with a minor in international relations and another in philosophy because she loved sussing out the backstory of these topics she quickly saw history as the common thread uniting them she decided to continue her education in the field of history earning a masters and phd from stanford after teaching for twenty-five years in california she joined the faculty at a&m in addition to writing works of traditional history dr cobbs also writes historical fiction reflecting her childhood love of the genre she relishes immersing readers in the sensate experiences of the past for example while writing the tubman command dr cobbs traveled to south carolina to stick her hands in the tar-like mud lining the banks of the combahee river to better understand the harsh physical obstacles enslaved men and women encountered while escaping bondage she states you have to go there to see those things you will never figure that out from going to an archive one of dr cobbss most rewarding professional experiences was watching her world war one nonfiction book on americas first women soldiers the hello girls come to life in an off-broadway musical while sitting in the audience on 59th street in new york surrounded by the granddaughters of the hello girls cobbs states i had stars in my eyes they were fantastic hello girls also became a childrens book cobbs hopes her scholarship spotlights how people of color and women helped weave the fabric of american history she wants her scholarship to help readers reimagine history revealing that our past was as diverse as our present to what historical figure would dr cobbs like to say howdy if given a chance she would love to meet social reformer and womens rights activist susan b anthony because along with her humor and wit anthony was a person of great integrity and soul by jennifer wells ‘24 faculty history peeps
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news felipe hinojosa co-edited collection faith and power february 2 2022 felipe hinojosa co-edited collection faith and power dr felipe hinojosas co-edited collection faith and power: latino religious politics since 1945 with nyu press (co-edited with maggie elmore of sam houston state university and sergio gonzález of marquette university) is being released this week the link is here… https://nyupressorg/9781479804528/faith-and-power/ faith and power compellingly argues that religious politics are central to social movements in the twentieth-century us not peripheral the dozen essays here consist of leading scholars as well as rising figures in the field these essays explore several different latina/o faith communities and their activism through immigration refugee policies de-industrialization the rise of the religious left and right as well as through various preexisting social justice movements this is the first collection of latina/o historians to map out the significance of religion in that communitys everyday life a topic traditionally relegated to non-historians in religious studies units in addition to co-authoring the historiographical introduction felipe also contributes a chapter from the fields to the cities: the rise of latina/o religious politics in the era of civil rights this collaborative effort has persevered through some adversity the organizing symposium here at texas a&m was forced to cancel in the initial days of the pandemic in march of 2020 so the authors continued their vital collaboration remotely with faith and power in 2022 as the result faculty news
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news albert broussard: building a better world with black history february 2 2022 albert broussard: building a better world with black history by tiarra drisker ‘25 photos by anna burson 24 albert broussard once a poor black kid in san francisco now teaches what he wishes he had been taught: black history even as a child growing up in a poor single-parent household in san francisco albert broussard was curious about black history he had a total of two black teachers and the only time he was taught about black history was during negro history week a week-long celebration of black history founded by carter g woodson that eventually became black history month eager to discover more about his ancestors broussard searched public libraries and scoured his house for any information he could find on the topic during his quest for knowledge broussard found a passion within himself: he wanted others to know about black history as well this sparked his devotion to teaching everyone about not only the struggles of black people in america but the history of people of african ancestry around the world broussard received a full scholarship to stanford university for his undergraduate degree and pursued teaching in his graduate years he became the first black professor within the college of liberal arts at texas a&m university to be promoted from associate professor to full-time professor along with these accomplishments broussard has published textbooks and is on the board of directors for the largest online black history website in the world blackpastorg the accomplishment he is most proud of though is creating the first black history course at texas a&m before broussard became a pioneer within texas a&m he was just a curious black kid in san francisco during his quest for knowledge broussard found a passion within himself: he wanted others to know about black history as well i went to a predominantly black elementary school that was mixed with mainly asian children broussard said we had very few white kids in the class i went to a predominantly black junior-high and high school that was when i first became exposed to what we would call black history today much of it was just reading on my own with the odds against him broussard credits his ability to succeed to the many mentors he encountered throughout his life they pushed him to reach his full potential academically and beyond i was very fortunate to connect with some mentors my mentors were teachers and professors broussard said they encouraged my interest in [black history] so i would occasionally give talks or write papers and attend conferences that students went to where we talked about black history i had a couple of teachers who believed in me more than i believed in myself one of his biggest role models was his mother broussards mother grew up in kansas city missouri for most of her childhood and migrated west during world war ii when she arrived in san francisco her education was so advanced that she was able to graduate two years early at the age of 16 she then attended san francisco city college for a year and became a typist her mother broussards grandmother had only received an eighth-grade education broussards mother and grandmother ingrained into him that an education would give him more opportunities he was encouraged to read whenever he could and to participate in academic activities my mother and my grandmother were extremely supportive of my education broussard shared they saw it as my ticket out of poverty if we wanted any kind of future we had to educate ourselves thats what every black parent told every black kid of my generation education was the one thing that white people could not take away from you in 1968 his senior year of high school recruiters from colleges throughout the san francisco bay area began visiting local high schools looking for promising black and brown students and convincing them to apply to well-renowned schools like uc berkeley or stanford broussard was set on going to san francisco state his goal at that time was to be a high school history teacher because he had excelled in his social studies and history classes his teachers mentors and role models were the ones encouraging him to go even further broussard ignites the passion he had for black history in his students at texas a&m so far two of his former students are pulitzer prize-winning authors it never occurred to me that i had the grades or the ability to actually go to one of the top schools in the country broussard said i applied to stanford uc berkeley uc santa cruz and other places i got accepted to all the schools i applied to when i got admitted to stanford i got admitted on a full-ride scholarship much to my surprise broussard attributes his motivation to further pursue his passions to his mother grandmother teachers and other mentors he had along the way never underestimate the power of a mentor over the life of another person broussard said sometimes they can shine a light in a new direction that you might not see at that time especially as a young person broussard was a part of the largest class of black students during his time at stanford about 50 to 60 black students were in his class and he thanked the black students before him for that the increase in the number of black students on stanfords campus was because of the pressure black students who preceded us placed on the administration broussard explained in some cases they sat in administration buildings and they pressured the administration in various kinds of ways this all grew out of the civil rights movement particularly the radicalization of black students on college campuses had it not been for that type of pressure i seriously doubt that those universities would have opened their doors in any significant way to black people broussard took his first official black history course as an undergrad at stanford the first black history course was not available at stanford until my second year broussard said i had a very good experience at stanford and it felt welcoming there was a black community you could connect with on campus if you wanted to we had a very strong black student organization on campus never underestimate the power of a mentor over the life of another person broussard said broussards experience at stanford further ignited his passion to teach black history to future generations he received his masters degree and phd in history from duke university then taught as a visiting professor at the university of california davis for one year he also taught as a visiting professor at the university of kentucky for one summer he took on a tenure position in history at a small college in colorado for a total of four years he left colorado for southern methodist university in dallas where he was director of the african american studies program and also taught in the history department then texas a&m came calling i came down in ‘85 and offered the first courses in black history broussard said ive been here ever since ive also taught at the qatar campus of texas a&m establishing a new curriculum for a course that had not been taught at texas a&m before was not easy they had never hired anyone to teach black history and there was no black history course on the books broussard explained i put the first two courses on the books and i had to slowly build up the enrollment the big difference then was that my classes were predominantly black students they went to about 50/50 after a couple years and today they are about 80 percent white and latino while there are only 20 percent black students the racial composition has shifted entirely now broussard is igniting the passion he had for black history in his students he has a special talent for developing young minds into talented historians so far two of his former students are pulitzer prize-winning authors i have a dozen or so graduate students black and white broussard said im very proud that every graduate student that i have worked with finished the program and got an academic job that is quite unusual for a place like texas a&m theyre not all teaching black history but most of them are thats another way to spread what i do and my love for black history as well my main motivation is to continue to impart my love for what i do but also teach as many people as possible about the black experience and the diaspora as well broussard came to texas a&m university in 1985 and began offering the first black history classes to students broussard attributes his means to research and teach a subject that he is passionate about to the college of liberal arts he said the college has supported his academic projects by providing research funding and has given him the time he needs to write scholarly articles he also said along with all of the things the college has provided him it provides his students an education unlike any other liberal arts is the heart and soul of the university broussard said the humanities are absolutely instrumental in teaching generations of students to think about their place in the world and their place in society humanities teach us about ourselves and teach us about our relationships with each other god help the university that relegates the liberal arts to a secondary role black history is a part of us history understanding not only the injustices black people have faced but the overall history of people of african descent is vital for social change and social progress black or not everyone should learn black history black people have been a part of this society from the very beginning broussard said they arrived 12 years after the first colony was founded they were the earliest pioneers in the society they helped build the society they have been a vital part of this society they have fought in every war and they have participated in every major military campaign they sacrificed their lives even though they have been relegated to second class citizens black people are americans and their history has been slighted and ignored for such a long time i think its time and the time has long passed for it to be told faculty news
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news exploring the margins of history conference february 18th & 19th 2022 january 30 2022 exploring the margins of history conference february 18th & 19th 2022 texas a&ms hgso will host the exploring the margins of history graduate student conference this friday and saturday its free and open to the public and emphasizes an inclusive approach to understanding historical narratives dr caleb mcdaniel rice university dr amy rutenberg (christopher gannon/iowa state university) our keynote speaker dr caleb mcdaniel recently received the pulitzer prize in history for sweet taste of liberty mcdaniels timely book traces the harrowing story of henrietta wood a woman who twice survived slavery and even sued the sheriff who conspired with her employer to sell her back into bondage and our distinguished speaker dr amy rutenberg author of rough draft thoughtfully explores how racial inequalities and class disparities impacted military demographics in the years following world war ii click here for more information on the keynote speakers sessions and the conference panels conferences news
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news adam seipp speaks on international holocaust remembrance day january 27 2022 adam seipp speaks on international holocaust remembrance day by tiarra drisker ‘25 seventy-seven years after the liberation of the auschwitz concentration camp there are still lessons to be learned from the atrocities of the holocaust the systematic genocide that killed an estimated 57 million european jews by the nazi german regime and its collaborators the nazis also targeted and persecuted roma and sinti slavic black physically and mentally disabled and homosexual people jan 27 1945 marked the liberation of auschwitz now it is our responsibility to remember the atrocities of the holocaust and learn from its gruesome history first we remember the day adam seipp professor in the department of history and associate dean of graduate and professional school said in this terrible conflict of the second world war we are particularly commemorating the millions of jewish men women and children who were murdered by nazi germany and its allies second we remember the crime holocaust remembrance day should make us think every year that in the middle of the twentieth century within the lifetime of people who are alive today a country in the heart of europe committed an act of remarkable perversion and violence and attempted to destroy europes jewish population while remembering the holocaust for the horrific event it was we also need to remember important lessons learned from its beginnings seipp added remembering and commemorating both the crimes and the victims of the holocaust should remind us of the cost of intolerance seipp explained it should remind us of what happens when a state mobilizes a society against part of the population turns against its civilians and systematically deprives people of their rights holocaust remembrance day should remind us of the possible consequences it should remind us of the value of individual human rights and individual human dignity lessons from the holocaust help us make better choices in the present or future for example the rohingya in myanmar and various ethnic groups in sudan are currently under the conditions of a genocide these groups face persecution and violence from their governments but their situation is not highly publicized or advocated against as contemporary observers as people who know about the holocaust this gives us a special mission to identify places in which people are being deprived of their rights and saying something seipp shared the holocaust demands that we pay attention when these sorts of things happen the holocaust also reminds us of how fragile democracy is adolf hitler came to power within german constitutional means even though he was not voted as chancellor by the majority hitler also enacted his dictatorship by means of the german constitution democracies dont defend themselves seipp said democracies have to be defended actively people who believe in democracy need to stand up and defend democracy that is what did not happen in the 1930s german democracy had a lot of passionate enemies and not many passionate defenders one of the lessons that we have to take away from this is that democracy is worth protecting against those who want to destroy it despite the significance and enormity of fatalities in current times the holocaust is often talked about and used in inappropriate contexts just recently a news personality at a top rated american news station compared anthony fauci an infectious disease expert to josef mengele the doctor who performed sadistic medical experiments at auschwitz the holocaust has become part of our language in ways that are really unhelpful seipp said on holocaust remembrance day we should pause and think about the consequences when we use faculty news
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news history peeps: kelly cook business coordinator ii december 8 2021 history peeps: kelly cook business coordinator ii kelly cooks texas roots run deep her family has ranched in the area for over one hundred years on six hundred acres divided between two properties known as the olden ranches she remembers hearing stories about how her great-grandfather sold land on walton drive at twenty-five cents an acre i could just imagine what it would be worth today she says with a grin the ranches are family-run operations with immediate and extended family working and living on-site they raise upwards of seventy-five cattle with new calves born from october through january when kelly is home she enjoys trail rides she owns seven quarter horses and keeps a miniature horse for her grandsons dawson and ryker she loves taking dawson and ryker around the farm letting them interact with the animals and she says with a smile whatever else they decide we need to dotheyre miniature bosses when not at the ranch kelly is at the history department kelly started working at texas a&ms beutel health center in 1999 in 2001 she transitioned to the history department where she worked for seven years she returned to the department in 2012 and has seen it flourish with the hiring of new faculty in recent years as the departments business coordinator kelly juggles multiple tasks from processing travel requests (for all visitors faculty and students) to reconciling credit card statements to processing new hires she especially loves planning and coordinating department events to what historical figure would kelly cook like to say howdy given a chance shed love to reconnect with her great-grandmother dymple carll creagor or mama creagor who passed away when kelly was a child her great-grandmother raised three children on a massive ranch by herself kelly would want to ask how she managed to keep everything in check specifically how did she raise all the animals and the children on her own in the mid-1900s jennifer wells 24 history peeps staff
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news history peeps: dr evan haefeli associate professor of history november 18 2021 history peeps: dr evan haefeli associate professor of history approaching history imaginatively makes the past more fluid and alive it means questioning the inevitability of events and looking past obvious answers for evan haefeli growing up surrounded by his fathers history books in westhampton new york the long hours he spent thumbing through their glossy illustrations first sparked his imagination to him these books were not old relics about by-gone eras instead their pages promised adventure to distant worlds still unknown he observes with a smile i was just kind of drawn to them by some mysterious force in high school and at hampshire college dr haefeli considered going into film he adapted monty python skits with friends for fun spent a summer working as an extra in alan aldas 1986 comedy sweet liberty and even performed alongside well-known actor liev schreiber in several hampshire college plays in 1992 however the 500th anniversary of christopher columbuss voyage to north america sparked dr haefelis curiosity about native american history he wanted to recover indigenous voices and understand perspectives too often ignored throughout his career dr haefeli has poked holes in historical dogma his creative outlook prompts him to embrace the messiness of history history is not a continuous linear path marching inevitably in one direction instead it consists of ordinary people making ad hoc decisions with unforeseeable outcomes he hopes his scholarship makes it so people dont take america for granted he wants to challenge historians who portray the american revolution or us independence as inevitable dr haefeli also challenges the conventional focus on the thirteen colonies the thirteen rebellious colonies did not exist in a vacuum but were part of a vibrant interconnected network of british and european colonies that pulsed with movement and exchange to what historical figure would evan haefeli like to say howdy if given a chance dr haefeli would love to meet the great inca of the inca empire before the spanish conquistadors arrived haefeli would want to see how the inca created this whole world on their own terms he thinks it would underscore the diversity of human experience and celebrate the different ways of being human jennifer wells 24 faculty history peeps
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news sonia hernandez publishes for a just and better world november 4 2021 sonia hernandez publishes for a just and better world dr sonia hernández has just published for a just and better world: engendering anarchism in the mexican borderlands 1900–1938 with the university of illinois press a national leader in labor history! the link is here… https://wwwpressuillinoisedu/books/id=88twt5rb9780252044045 for a just and better world builds upon historic transnational connections between the cosmopolitan port of tampico the rio grande valley of texas the mexican north and ports of entry across the atlantic dr hernández retraces an anarchist-inspired network of labor activists that emerged on the eve of the 1910 mexican revolution mexicanas such as caritina piña montalvo and others fought to promote labor rights locally and abroad they did so by promoting anarchist ideals and envisioning a community of workers beyond geopolitical borders anarchist based organizations were among the first collectives to open doors to women and to incorporate womens issues yet despite such progressivism gendered ideas about femininity and masculinity shaped members perspectives just as much as they shaped mainstream media outlets casting radical female activists as women of ill-repute for a just and better world argues that piña and colleagues employed the language of motherhood which echoed the state discourse on mother-citizens yet for these anarcho-feminists motherhood and maternalism was a catalyst for revolutionary change apart from any state-building project thus their real revolutionnot the 1910 revolutionwas yet to come by the early 1930s anarcho-syndicalism declined as the revolutionary state grew stronger in co-opting organized labor which silenced both anarchists and communists state-sanctioned socialism triumphed but the legacy of womens activism in the form of direct-action and reciprocal organizing remained a distinctive feature of the greater mexican borderlands such historic and gendered border solidarities were foundational to postrevolutionary labor alliances to quote caritina piña their struggles focused on one goal to create a just and better world… on the heels of the publication of reverberations of violence her co-edited anthology a few months ago sonia is having quite the publishing year congrats to our colleague dr sonia hernández for publishing for a just and better world!! books faculty news
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news history peeps: raymond mitchell graduate student november 2 2021 history peeps: raymond mitchell graduate student fellow aggies raymond mitchell with his daughter hannah also a student at texas a&m life is unpredictable its path twists and weaves sometimes it challenges us to abandon our comfortable routines and calls us to venture into the murky unknown although many ignore the invitation a brave few accept it in 2014 during raymond mitchells most profitableand arguably his most outwardly successfulyear as an oil and gas attorney in katy texas his quiet discontent hardened into a firm resolve at that moment raymond realized i want to get out of this a self-confessed risk-averse micromanaging planner raymond hatched a plan to upend his life and pursue his true passionstudying history in 2018 after practicing law for twenty-five years raymond began a new journey to further his education he earned a masters in history at sam houston state university and in 2020 started the phd program at texas a&m with a grin raymond says im happy as a clam right now joy has become his default every morning raymond wakes up and thinks this is where i want to be raymond hopes to teach history at the university level as a graduate teaching assistant raymond encourages undergraduates to use historical inquiry to illuminate the vast interconnections that exist between the past present and future he notes everything in history is affected by everything that came before it and it affects everything that comes after it raymond wants students to grasp the totality of history including its nuance and complexity to what historical figure would raymond mitchell like to say howdy given a chance he finds civil war general stonewall jackson a really fascinating [and] bizarre individual and he would love to ask about jacksons war strategy but more than that raymond would like to understand how such a pious manjackson routinely cited scripture and refused to fight on sundayscould justify slavery jennifer wells 24 history peeps
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news walter kamphoefner publishes germans in america: a concise history october 27 2021 walter kamphoefner publishes germans in america: a concise history dr walter kamphoefner has just published his highly anticipated big book on the german american presence in us history germans in america: a concise history with rowman & littlefield publishers in this book walter studies the germansthe largest and perhaps the most diverse foreign-language group in 19th century america continuing to focus on history from the bottom up on both sides of the atlantic as he has throughout his ground-breaking career dr kamphoenfer draws heavily upon examples from immigrant letters germans in america presents a number of surprising new insights walter pays particular attention to the german-american institutional network which because of the size and diversity of the immigrant group was especially strong not just parochial schools but public elementary schools in dozens of cities offered instruction in the mother tongue only after 1900 was there a slow transition to the english language in most german churches still the anti-german hysteria of world war i brought not so much a sudden end to cultural preservation as an acceleration of a decline that had already begun beforehand it is from this point on that the largest american ethnic group also became the least visible but especially in rural enclaves traces of the german culture and language persisted to the end of the twentieth century as professor kamphoefner mentions in his notes the last big attempt at a synthesis on this topic was in the mid-1970s this veritable tour de force according to one reviewer is brilliantly told from the bottom up in the best tradition of the new social historys concern for lived experience and inclusivity with regard to race class and gender you can learn more about germans in america here from the publisher https://rowmancom/isbn/9781442264977/germans-in-america-a-concise-history books faculty news
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news history peeps: dr olga dror professor of history october 18 2021 history peeps: dr olga dror professor of history true aggie spirit olga dror with her son michael (a&m class of 2014) in japan born in the soviet union olga dror studied vietnamese language and literature at the school of oriental studies at leningrad state university she recalls that admission to the program explicitly gave preference to boys over girls and i liked the challenge but sex discrimination proved easier to overcome than discrimination against jews after she graduated college anti-semitism limited dror in finding a job and she decided to emigrate in 1990 she surrendered her soviet passportand consequently her citizenshipin exchange for documents allowing her to leave the soviet union a stateless person with $300 in her pocket dror emigrated to israel where she decided to study international relations at the hebrew university in jerusalem despite the challenges of a new country and new language israel felt like home there dror states she began again from scratch after the demise of the soviet union when many new israeli embassies opened in the former soviet republics she used her new expertise in international relations to work for the ministry of foreign affair as a consul of israel to the baltic states in 1997 dror started on yet another adventure when she crossed the atlantic to ithaca new york to begin a phd program at cornell university concentrating in southeast asian and east asian history although her new life came with additional challenges like mastering american english dror completed her graduate studies rapidly in 2003 the next year she joined the faculty at a&m when her long journey from st petersburg (formerly leningrad) brought her to college station now the author of five books on vietnam dror enjoys digging through archives interviewing people and exploring countryside temples her goal is to foster a deeper understanding of vietnam and its place in world history dr dror loves teaching she states im thrilled each time i go to class for her the classroom is not only a place to teach new material but also to show students how to argue their point and respect the opinions of the others on a personal note dr dror is most proud of her son michael dror a fellow aggie who graduated in 2014 to what historical figure would dr dror like to say howdy if given a chance dr dror would not mind meeting ho chi minh the first president of the democratic republic of vietnam an enigmatic revolutionary who cemented the vietnamese communist state for decades ho chi minh is the focus of a new book dr dror is writing a book about the cult of personality jennifer wells 24 faculty history peeps
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news lorien foote publishes rites of retaliation october 11 2021 lorien foote publishes rites of retaliation dr lorien foote the patricia & bookman peters professor of history and our esteemed colleague has just published rites of retaliation: civilization soldiers and campaigns in the american civil war with unc press this monograph is based on the steven and janice brose lectures at pennsylvania state university that she gave in the fall of 2019 the link to the book is here https://uncpressorg/book/9781469665276/rites-of-retaliation/ dr foote finds that during the civil war union and confederate politicians military commanders everyday soldiers and civilians claimed that their approach to the conflict was civilized in keeping with centuries of military tradition meant to restrain violence and preserve national honor one hallmark of such civilized warfare was a highly ritualized approach to retaliation this ritual provided a forum to accuse the enemy of excessive behavior to negotiate redress according to the laws of war and to appeal to the judgment of other civilized nations as the war progressed northerners and southerners feared they were losing this claim to civilization as the attention to retaliation grew more intense when black soldiers joined the union army in campaigns in south carolina georgia and florida raiding plantations and liberating enslaved people confederates argued the war had become a servile insurrection and when confederates massacred black troops after battle killed white union foragers after capture and used prisoners of war as human shields federals thought their enemy raised the black flag by embracing savagery blending military and cultural history this rich and insightful book sheds light on how americans fought over what it meant to be civilized and who should be extended the protections of a civilized world congratulations lorien on this new book that will shed new and important light on one of the most fascinating and debated periods in us history books faculty news
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news brian rouleau publishes empires nursery september 28 2021 brian rouleau publishes empires nursery our esteemed colleague and excellent director of undergraduate studies dr brian rouleau has just published empires nursery: childrens literature and the origins of the american century with the highly regarded nyu press here is the web link from nyu press with an amazingly fun and imperial cover! https://nyupressorg/9781479804474/empires-nursery/ in empires nursery brians second monograph he argues that childrens literature in the united states has often been employed to explain the nations international ambitions examining dime novels childrens magazines serialized stories pulp fiction and comic books empires nursery situates young people as a crucial audience for diplomatic discourse in addition rouleau examines the novels short stories and poetry written by children themselves to suggest that throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries juvenile citizens actively sought to contribute to and shape a national conversation about americas growing global influence the modern era has often been called both the american century and the century of the child empires nursery illustrates how those conceptualizations intertwined by depicting children in a rather influential role as the junior partners of us international expansion with chapter titles like how the west was fun and comic book cold war rouleaus empires nursery will not just be an erudite examination of american cultural history and its sense of the world but a book that causes us re-think the reading passions of our own youth with a new understanding and appreciation congratulations brian on this tremendous achievement!! books faculty news
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news jonathan brunstedt publishes the soviet myth of world war ii september 21 2021 jonathan brunstedt publishes the soviet myth of world war ii dr jonathan brunstedt shares with the department his just released monograph the soviet myth of world war ii: patriotic memory and the russian question in the ussr published by cambridge university press! the website is here… https://wwwcambridgeorg/us/academic/subjects/history/russian-and-east-european-history/soviet-myth-world-war-ii-patriotic-memory-and-russian-question-ussrformat=hb in this book jonathan begins with a simple question: how did a socialist society ostensibly committed to marxist ideals of internationalism and global class struggle reconcile itself to notions of patriotism homeland russian ethnocentrism and the glorification of war his answer is that this is a defining event for the soviet epoch this learned and stimulating monograph dives into the myth and remembrance of the ussrs world war ii victory by soviet intellectuals and governing officials the soviet myth demonstrates that while the experience and legacy of the conflict reinforced a sense of russian primacy and russian-dominated ethnic hierarchy it simultaneously enabled an alternative supra-ethnic source of belonging that would eventually subsume russian and non-russian loyalties alike to the soviet whole dr brunstedt argues that the tension and competition between russocentric and internationalist conceptions of victory burst open during the late 1980s this schism reflected a wider struggle over the nature of patriotic identity in a multiethnic society that continues to reverberate in the post-soviet space vladimir putins recent calls for a russian past that is ever more imperial and patriotic are a testament to this books timely contribution books faculty news
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news history peeps: dr lorien foote professor of history september 21 2021 history peeps: dr lorien foote professor of history dr foote with buzz a small puppy changed dr lorien footes life forever in 2015 she admits i am somebody that did not grow up with pets and had no interest in animals at all but a spring break trip to washington dc converted her while mining the national archives for research material dr foote stayed with a dog-owning friend after a full day in the archives she would find the dog waiting for her at the door dr foote recalls i would pat this dog and i found it really relaxing two weeks later dr foote shocked her family by adopting a black and white shih tzu named buzz because she had never expressed the slightest interest in pets dr foote recalls my family was like ‘what is lorien doing were going have to go down there and do an intervention! but dr footes life shifted for the better on neighborhood walks with buzz she found herself taking time to appreciate the simple beauty of her surroundings buzz influenced dr loriens professional life as well she began to notice the frequency of animals in source material on the civil war her scholarly specialty she says with a smile dogs are everywhere in nineteenth-century sources because dogs are everywhere she sees animal studies as a window onto nineteenth-century warrior culture while her current research project examines the real contributions that dogs make to warfare it also dives deeply into the culture of both the us army and american indian tribes dr foote muses buzz took me in a new direction to study something i have never thought about before dr foote writes story-driven books to reach a wide readership she believes historians shape society by showing people the past and getting them to open up their vision of the world to what historical figure would dr foote like to say howdy if given a chance dr foote would love to meet abraham lincoln shed ask if his views on race shifted during the civil war and about the theological views he expressed in his second inaugural when he claimed that although god directs history the pattern is often beyond human comprehension as a historian searching for patterns dr foote would want to discuss what lincoln meant (jennifer wells 24) faculty history peeps
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news college of liberal arts interviews armando alonzo for national hispanic heritage month september 20 2021 college of liberal arts interviews armando alonzo for national hispanic heritage month understanding and celebrating tejano history in honor of hispanic heritage month faculty from the college of liberal arts talk about tejano origins and the importance of studying their history by mia mercer ‘23 from sept 15 to oct 15 we celebrate the culture and history of the roughly 605 million hispanic and latinos living in the united states while the celebrations name might suggest that hispanic and latino groups are all connected by a shared heritage and history the reality is several unique and rich cultures and ethnicities are lumped together under the terms hispanic and latino one such group calls themselves tejanos to learn more about tejanos and how they influence and contribute to the history of the united states and mexico we talked to armando alonzo an associate professor in the department of history who researches mexican american texas and spanish borderland history this interview which has been condensed and edited for clarity explores the importance of tejano history as well as the history of texas and northern mexico in the period of 1700-1865 who are tejanos tejanos are descendants of the spaniards texas history and the southwest are very intricately linked to the spanish colonial period initially spanish settlers referred to themselves as vecinos meaning citizens of spain the general requirements to be a vecino were that you were male that you were over 21 that you were an adult a property owner and that you lived in a fixed residence in a town the spanish settlers in texas lived in a small part of what they called new spain in the beginning tejanos were the older generations of people in texas or descendants of this spanish vecinos at one point they actually use the word tejano as a self-designation or tejana for women they even used [tejano] in a formal document in the early 1800s but they still saw themselves as citizens of spain just as everyone else within this spanish empire here in the new world when spanish rule ended in 1821 mexico was born as a new nation overnight these people who were spaniards had new sovereignty a new authority their allegiance is now to the united states of mexico and so they call themselves mexicano meaning mexican because they are resilient the tejanos went along with the changes in government and became citizens of mexico the word tejano is still in use to the present day and so the older generations of the descendants of the spaniards and the mexicanos in texas refer to themselves as tejanos if you go to california there will be a tejano community there and if you go to wisconsin there will also be people from texas who say were originally from texas were tejano people so tejano is still a popular term of identity its not a race but its a social construction of identity what made you interested in studying tejano history i myself am trained as a us historian but i began to take courses in the histories of mexico and latin america and then basically self-trained in the history of the us and mexico the spanish borderlands and now the mexican borderlands there wasnt a natural discipline for these fields that i work in on a personal level i knew that i wanted to undertake a graduate program in history i grew up in south texas in the lower valley and i would see some of my relatives including my great grandmother one day i said abuela where are you really from she said were from the river valley referring to the rio grande valley from then on i had an interest in finding out more about my own personal history and the roots of the people not just of me and my family but the roots of what we call the tejano people and the mexican american people im using both terms interchangeably here this got me interested in the research that i do so i began to research and write about it and did a dissertation that focused on the settlers in south texas both the tejanos and the non-tejano people the anglos and the europeans that came to settle in what is now south texas what made you interested in studying the history of texas and northern mexico in the period of 1700-1865 specifically i became interested in understanding how the history of texas is very strongly connected to the history of northern mexico we had small rail lines in the houston area before the civil war the railroad mileage in texas was very small after the civil war the railroads expanded and then in the 1880s we had the national railroads move into texas and expand to the rio grande to the border at the same time the american capitol in mexico built railroads in mexico which cemented this connection between texas and northern mexico it wasnt really to let people get on the train and move to texas; mexico had riches particularly very valuable minerals like silver magnesium zinc lead copper the american nation was industrializing very strongly at the end of the civil war so we needed all those minerals and merchants wanted to sell in mexico because they had money and were the leading producer of silver in the world so the merchant class in the us and europe wanted to trade with mexico but because texas had no significant railroads the links are all overland from texas to northern mexico and northern mexico to texas and the goods go out through ports like galveston corpus christi brownsville and then ports below brownsville for this whole period in the late 1800s the bulk of the trade went to the atlantic world economy northern mexico and texas are linked through this atlantic world and of course the merchant class in texas profits a great deal from that no state in the union had more economic links than texas in a nutshell texas and mexico are very closely linked because we have historical ties cultural ties economic ties and at times political ties texas has always been the number one state to receive the benefits of our connections with the modern nation-state of mexico what are some of your favorite moments in tejano history tejano history is complicated like a lot of history and depending on what time period you look at youre going to see tejano leaders for example when we look at the texas revolution of 1835-36 we see there were tejano heroes on both sides some of the tejanos sided with the revolution against the dictator santa ana yet there were a few folks in texas that fought on the side of santa ana another famous tejano was juan seguin who was the leader of the tejanos at the battle of san jacinto and was a mayor of san antonio he became quite controversial because during the period of the texas republic he then left san antonio with an army saying he was deeply disturbed and bothered by the behavior of anglos in san antonio but later he came back to live the rest of his life in texas he was truly a tejano hero and political leader even though others saw him as a traitor to texas and then if you look at political history some of the tejanos in the early 20th century began to organize civil organizations to advocate for their community eventually they formed the league of united latin american citizens (lulac) at corpus christi in 1929 which is the oldest civil rights advocacy group their basic ideology was assimilation into american life and politics and even though they hired lawyers and would go into court they hardly won anything it took a long time before lulac and another organization got a very important victory in the supreme court case hernandez v texas 1954 it was the first case to reach the us supreme court and the mexican american lawyers who worked on it were hailed as heroes the main significance was that treating mexican americans as a class apart from others was unconstitutional under the 14th amendment to the us constitution why is it important to study tejano and mexican history its important to study the history of our homeland; texas in this case it gives us a vantage point to see what it is that took place in the past what people were able to do and what struggles and successes they had whether it was in the colonial period or the period of the texas revolution or in the 20th century history is a good way to look at that it also allows us to understand how people sometimes have to struggle to see themselves as equal citizens in this evolving complex society it gives us an opportunity to learn about the past and issues that took place and how leaders- social political and educational leaders- are able to resolve those problems and move forwards this is a story that continues to evolve faculty news
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news dr elizabeth cobbs publishes in the los angeles times september 14 2021 dr elizabeth cobbs publishes in the los angeles times op-ed: lessons from afghanistan for a high school history class a us military plane departs the kabul airport on aug 30 (wali sabawoon / associated press) by elizabeth cobbs sept 12 2021 3:10 am pt americas schoolchildren dont resist learning from history policymakers do president biden ended a war in afghanistan that his three predecessors pursued (and rued) for 20 years as a young man he criticized a war in vietnam supported by five presidents high school students want to love their country they want to understand why america intervenes militarily in other nations when americans would not like anyone else doing that to them if teachers explain this carefully they can help students become hopeful citizens and give them tools to both advocate american values and avoid war in the future it is hard to think of a nobler goal as this school year begins the chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan last month provides just the latest opportunity to discuss us ambitions and shortcomings as someone who has taught history for several decades i would offer the following three-week lesson plan to guide that conversation once 14-year-olds master the subject they can share the lessons with politicians to read the entire article click the pdf version: la times article or the link below: https://wwwlatimescom/opinion/story/2021-09-12/lessons-from-afghanistan-withdrawal-for-a-high-school-history-class faculty news
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news history peeps: david vaught professor of history september 2 2021 history peeps: david vaught professor of history david vaught writing his dissertation in 1995 with the assistance of his infant daughter diana (who graduated from dental school in 2021) note the vintage macintosh desktop history shows that finding ones way sometimes requires the courage to reject a predetermined path when i first went to college out of high school i tried to be a math major because my father was a math professor dr david vaught states i failed miserably he adds in 1979 in the middle of his junior year dr vaught had had enough he recalls i just got in my car and left he started driving a delivery truck in the san francisco bay area six years later dr vaught decided to enroll at san francisco state university again he declared a math major (the quickest route to graduation) but quickly realized it wasnt for him i dont even think i lasted one class before i walked out in the middle of it and thought what the hell am i doing here for the first time dr vaught decided to take classes that interested him a casual comment in a western civilization class about the worldview of ancient egyptians hooked him the idea of using primary sources to peer into the minds of historical actors to understand their motivations intrigued him after earning a phd in history in 1997 from the university of california davis dr vaught started his career at texas a&m for dr vaught embracing the process of researching and writing history remains central to his motivation he states the most important thing to learnfor your own sanityis how to enjoy the process as opposed to the outcome from an ideas early stirrings to researching it in an archive to staring anxiously at a blank computer screen to holding a polished book in ones hand learning to embrace the highs and lows of the process is key to a scholars lasting success another source of motivation is finding a topic one loves dr vaught merged history with his lifelong obsession with baseball it began when he spent late nights as a child glued to the crackly radio broadcasts of giants baseball games over time he turned his passion into books including the farmers game: baseball in rural america (2014) and spitter: baseballs notorious gaylord perry (forthcoming) dr vaught states the ability to mix history and baseballwhich didnt occur to me until very late in the game (so to speak)is the greatest dr vaught hopes his enthusiasm rubs off on students history is just so full of great stuff i mean how can you not teach it with enthusiasm to what historical figure would dr vaught like to say howdy if given a chance dr vaught would love to meet george w pierce jr an almond grower in california at the turn of the 20th century and the central figure in his first book cultivating california: growers specialty crops and labor 1875–1920 (1999) hed also like to meet pierces father george w pierce sr a gold rush migrant turned wheat farmer in california featured in dr vaughts second book after the gold rush: tarnished dreams in the sacramento valley (2007) dr vaught would simply want to ask did i get it right (jennifer wells 24) faculty history peeps
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news history peeps: dr tristan osteria phd 2016 august 17 2021 history peeps: dr tristan osteria phd 2016 growing up in the philippines in the 1990s dr tristan osteria looked forward to unwrapping books on his birthday and at christmas whether reading hardy boys mysteries or histories of world war ii dr osteria saw himself as a detective piecing together the past bit by bit america loomed large in dr osterias imagination as the colonial power in the philippines from 1898 to 1946 after completing his undergraduate degree and masters degree at ateneo de manila university in quezon city dr osteria packed his belongings and trekked across the globe to college station drawn by a&ms renown in diplomatic history (a&m has more historians of us foreign relations than any other us university) although he found it challenging to live alone in a foreign country and learn american english language in the land of native speakers he loved the unique opportunities that came his way dr osteria had the chance to conduct research in archives across the country including independence missouri as a truman library research grant recipient dr osteria states that completing his doctoral dissertation and graduating with a phd in history from texas a&m is his proudest accomplishment to date now a professor of history at the university of santo tomas in the philippines dr osteria values mentorship he encourages students to feed their curiosity by asking questions about the wider world dr osterias scholarly goal is to place filipino history in the context of broader narratives under the guidance of advisor jason parker dr osterias dissertation building from within: indigenous nation-building and state-making during the filipino third republic 1946-1957 examined how filipinos set about building an autonomous nation after independence in 1946 rather than viewing the history of the philippines as one primarily of conquest and subjugation dr osteria underscores how filipinos pursued filipino visions and shaped filipino destinies during the cold war his research finds filipinos acted as free agents who strategically aligned themselves with america to stave off soviet communism highlighting the agency of local peoples dr osteria believes sheds light on post-colonialism in both asia and africa during the modern period to what historical figure would dr osteria like to say howdy if given a chance dr osteria would want to meet some of the early spanish missionaries who brought christianity to the islandsor the precolonial filipino warriors who greeted them most names have been lost but dr osteria thinks the perspectives of unnamed filipinos from various walks of life would offer fascinating insights into the archipelagos ancient cultures and their transformation over time (jennifer wells 24) history peeps
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news jonathan brunstedt interviews with the wilson center in washington dc august 12 2021 jonathan brunstedt interviews with the wilson center in washington dc drawing lessons from the soviet-afghan war: a conversation with title viii research scholar jonathan brunstedt by jonathan brunstedt on august 11 2021 image credit q: describe your background and what brought you to the wilson center like many kids of the 1980s my fascination with communism the cold war the soviet union and so on derived from paranoia and fear as well as a belief in the infallibility of americas role in the world my earliest childhood memories were set against the backdrop of reagans evil empire speech news coverage of the chernobyl disaster and the fall of the berlin wall but hollywood films like red dawn and the rambo series probably did as much as anything to shape my childhood worldview i sometimes show my students an opening clip from red dawn in which soviet paratroopers launch an all-out assault on a high school in a small colorado town the soldiers attack in the middle of a school day for some reason and proceed to fire rocket launchers and ak-47s indiscriminately into the school of course none of the students or teachers is armed its cartoonishly violent and my students usually respond with laughter at the absurdity of it all but as a child growing up in a mountain town very similar to the one depicted in the film red dawn felt entirely realistic in the distorted view of my youth the soviet union was above all things concerned with destroying the american way of life and socialism in all its manifestations constituted an intrinsic evil long after the ussr collapsed elements of this mentality stayed with me indeed even today many of my students espouse some version of this mentality which also continues to inform an important strand of us political thought it wasnt until very late in high school and especially college when i first studied these issues in any depth that i came to understand that the soviet union like the united states was the product of complex social political economic and geopolitical forces; that its political system peculiar ideology and antagonistic relationship with western governments could be understood and explained as a response to very specific historical circumstances; that there was a fundamental disconnect for example between the aims of revolutionary socialists of the early twentieth century and the authoritarian system that emerged in russia in the wake of 1917 this is a long-winded way of explaining that i ultimately dropped my college specialization in ancient history and chose to pursue russian and soviet history in graduate school because it profoundly challenged my long-held cold war perceptions this decision in turn first brought me to the wilson center (kennan institute) ten years ago as part of a phd project on soviet war memory the wilson center was a natural setting to begin my new book project that deals more directly with the late cold war issues q: what project are you working on at the center my current book project entangled defeats: the soviet-afghan war and the shadow of vietnam examines the use and abuse of historical analogies during the 1980s and beyond specifically the project looks at how the vietnam war becomes a preferred metaphor for the later soviet war in afghanistan on both sides of the iron curtain throughout the 1980s the idea of a potential soviet vietnam became enmeshed in both us and soviet political discourses political military and cultural elites looked to the vietnam war in order to draw lessons for the unfolding soviet war in afghanistan for many american policymakers the objective became to give the soviets their vietnam war to quote the us national security advisor at the time this in turn became a project to overcome the so-called vietnam syndromethat is the widespread aversion to foreign interventions bequeathed by the us defeat in vietnam the fact that the us was now supporting local resistance fighters against an invading superpower one that was itself becoming ensnared in a vietnam-like military quagmire played an underappreciated role in vanquishing the sense of post-vietnam malaise in the united states at the same time soviet officials went out of their way to refute (often in great detail) the notion of a soviet vietnam nevertheless many soviet citizens and soldiers came to embrace aspects of the analogy notably they did so by pointing to the ussrs own official rhetoric about the vietnam war i should clarify that i am not arguing that the vietnam and soviet-afghan wars were perfectly analogous rather i am trying to explain how and why the idea of a soviet vietnam gained traction in both us and soviet contexts whatever the validity of the parallels with vietnam such analogizing reflected larger issues about american and soviet political identities at the twilight of the cold war as i have mentioned on the american side the ways the soviet-afghan war seemed to echo vietnam played an important role in this process but the analogy was also significant in the soviet union a surprising aspect of my research has been discovering just how important it was to the communist party leadership to engage and discredit the analogy with vietnam rather than simply ignore it the realization among many soviet citizens that the ussrs anticolonial rhetoric and policies had given way to an imperial adventurism strikingly reminiscent of americas war in vietnam presented a real threat to the regime as late as the withdrawal of its remaining forces in early 1989 the soviet military issued an official statement asserting for posterity that this war was nothing like the americans in vietnam vladimir putin recently made a similar point for a russian television documentary in which he asserted that while mistakes were made in the execution of the war there is no basis to compare the soviet experience in afghanistan with the american war in vietnam putin drew on a frequent refrain of communist authorities that the soviets were invited into the country by the afghan government unlike the americans in vietnam all this speaks to the continued salience of the vietnam analogy not only in official considerations of the soviet-afghan war and its remembrance but also in the evolution of late soviet and post-soviet identity politics q: how did you become interested in your current research topic at the risk of another long-winded answer ill say that this project builds from themes explored in my first book the soviet myth of world war ii: patriotic memory and the russian question in the ussr (cambridge 2021) that book explored the way the myth and remembrance of the soviet victory in world war ii created the conditions for a transcendent soviet sense of identity one that had the potential of binding russians kazakhs uzbeks moldovans armenians latvians and so on around a common patriotic ideal but the book also looked at how the communist party leadership reframed past russian wars in a way that provided convenient martial analogs to convey a uniquely socialist version of patriotism in other words the book touched on how the party utilized historical analogies to reconcile contradictions between marxism-leninism and patriotic mobilization i found this fascinating and decided to focus my next project on historical analogies at the time the us was embroiled in its own war in afghanistan i read an account of the us decision to invade iraq and afghanistan and was struck by the way policymakers and generals debated by pointing to various historical precedents and analogues during these discussions some advisors worried that involvement in afghanistan could devolve into another vietnam those on the other side of the debate offered counter analogies the idea that historical analogies were informing major policy deliberations while not surprising seemed significant it wasnt long before i homed in on the vietnam analogy in the context of the little studied yet crucially important soviet-afghan war q: why do you believe that your research matters to a wider audience the intellectual historian peter gordon observed that like common law the moral imagination works by precedent and example whether we are conscious of it or not we all use analogies in our everyday lives to make sense of the world around us we explain this or that thing by reference to a shared understanding of another thing this is especially true when dealing with events that are difficult to comprehend such as wars or other national cataclysms following 9/11 many in the media and political establishment argued that this was our pearl harbor the pearl harbor metaphor indicated on the one hand that this was a horrific surprise attack on american soil by an external enemy but it also implicitly suggested a call to war just as pearl harbor brought the us fully into world war ii so 9/11 paved the way for the unfolding war on terror when used in a historically informed manner analogies can provide insight into present-day issues but analogies tend to decontextualize events particularly when utilized for political ends which can create dangerous blind spots the political scientist yuen foong khong has demonstrated that in 1965 policymakers debated sending combat troops into south vietnam by way of a series of historical analogies: the munich conference of 1938 korea in 1950 and dien bien phu in 1954 the munich and especially korean war analogies ultimately won out munich impelled intervention in vietnam so as to avoid appeasing and emboldening a hostile aggressor at the same time the korean war analogy influenced the decision to limit combat forces to below what the pentagon requested this more limited force it was hoped would avoid provoking large-scale chinese intervention one of the lessons of korea khong shows that the reliance on historical analogies rendered decision-makers blind to equally important local vietnamese factors the point is that the use and misuse of analogies can have important ramifications among other reasons i think my project will appeal to wider audiences precisely because it highlights something we dont often consider: that we all rely on analogical reasoning as we strive to comprehend complex issues but analogies need to be used with great care while they can help shed light on present-day challenges they can also – especially in political contexts – create or reinforce simplistic ideological paradigms within which it becomes difficult to accurately assess for example the costs and benefits of a prolonged military intervention as the us is currently disengaging from its longest-ever war in afghanistan the latter point seems particularly germane q: what is the most challenging aspect of your research as a historian my research depends first and foremost on access to archives the covid-19 pandemic has made access to many former soviet and us archives impossible so this is the main challenge currently however a potentially greater challenge will be the topic itself the soviet-afghan war is still a highly politicized issue in russia and many documents relevant to my research remain off-limits to scholars moreover my approach to the topic and the suggestion that the vietnam analogy is in any way relevant to the issue of the soviet-afghan war is going to be misinterpreted by some of the people i hope to interview it is therefore crucial that i am absolutely clear about what i am trying to accomplish rather than compare the vietnam and soviet-afghan wars or suggest that the war in afghanistan was the soviet vietnam i am trying to understand how this analogy evolved and what its significance and impact were at the time one of the great things about working at the wilson center is that it holds some of the most important documents relevant to the soviet-afghan war as part of its cold war international history project the same can be said for the washington dc-based national security archive best of all these archives are almost entirely digital so given covid i am fortunate indeed for the past efforts of the wilson center and the continued guidance of the wilson staff as i launch this project q: what do you hope the impact of your research will be recent political disputes in the united states have centered on issues of historical memory commemoration and the connection between memory and identity the legacies of slavery and the civil war and efforts to shape public narratives surrounding them are as relevant today as ever but historical memory is being contested everywhere not least of which in russia and the former communist bloc it is my hope that my research helps inform and contextualize these disputes it is after all only by recognizing the constructed and always-contested nature of the cultural narratives that shape our lives that societies can properly reckon with the past – the good as well as the bad the opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the authors and do not reflect the views of the kennan institute click here for the original interview on the wilson center website faculty news
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news history peeps: angela hudson professor and associate department head august 2 2021 history peeps: angela hudson professor and associate department head dr hudson addressing the southern american studies association in 2017 when dr angela hudson was about nine years old her family took her to a used book sale at the spartanburg sc community library as she rummaged through the messy piles she became enthralled by the glamorous images sprawled across the glossy pages of life magazines from the 1940s her parents hoping to nurture her curiosity loaded the magazines into paper sacks and drove home dr hudson spent hours combing through her midcentury treasures of a glamorous and bygone era i would just sit and look at them she recalls i just thought they were really really neat she delighted in surprising her family with trivia after seeing an advertisement that featured a doctor smoking a cigarette alongside the caption i always recommend marlboro to my patients dr hudson reminisces id come in and say ‘did you know that doctors used to smoke in the examining room these primary source documents lured dr hudson down the path of history dr hudson encourages students to think about whats at stake when they study history she urges them to peel back the layers of simplistic myths to reveal the interconnected messiness of the past a scholar of american indian history dr hudson highlights marginalized voices in her research in the hope that readers will learn to sit with the discomfort that comes with american history she states i think thats really part of living in a more equitable and ethical society is embracing complexityembracing contradictionand seeing it as part of the human condition dr hudsons favorite aspect of teaching is learning when her classes have had a lasting impact it makes it all worthwhile whenever she receives unexpected notes from former students who tell her they view history in a new light to what historical figure would dr hudson like to say howdy if given a chance dr hudson would love to meet web dubois although historians often divide duboiss scholarship and ideas into fragments based on their own disciplinary interests she suspects that the pathbreaking american writer and reformer was a big-picture thinker she muses i think he was probably one of those people who saw things as all connected she would want to ask do you think were headed toward a more equitable society (jennifer wells 24) faculty history peeps
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news felipe hinojosas ‘apostles of change tells how secular latino activists protested by seizing sacred spaces july 26 2021 felipe hinojosas ‘apostles of change tells how secular latino activists protested by seizing sacred spaces as historian felipe hinojosa said "we know very little about latino and latina religious leaders that were prophets that were religious radicals people who stood up to faith and justice" apostles of change: latino radical politics church occupations and the fight to save the barrio is historian felipe hinojosas most recent book by alejandra molina in the late 1960s and early 70s latino activists occupied church buildings across the country as a way of taking back control of their communities and calling attention to local residents poverty lack of educational opportunities and displacement amid revitalization plans that hiked up rents in a recently published book texas a&m historian felipe hinojosa gives this little remembered movement a new look focusing on four cities chicago los angeles new york and houston where these apostles of change as hinojosa calls both the groups and his book inhabited churches to show the power of the church in neighborhoods across the country to these activists hinojosa notes community control begins with the institutions people perceive to be the most sacred latino activists used these spaces to host health clinics breakfast programs and art and history classes they used the grounds to organize as well as to prompt the churches and institutions to leverage their wealth and power to help their neighbors the activism of groups such as the largely puerto rican-led young lords the lay catholic group católicos por la raza and the mexican american youth organization hinojosa writes reminds us that religious lives are both political and spiritual and that churches are not neutral spaces but apostles of change isnt a book about faith-inspired protest hinojosa said rather it looks at how religious outsiders strategically used houses of worship to inspire faith communities to get involved in the struggles of the neighborhood while many know about the activist faith of cesar chavez the farm worker leader who drew inspiration from catholic social teaching hinojosa said its important to also learn about other local latino grassroots movements that took place its important to look beyond the kind of hero worship of the civil rights movement and do the kind of research that will help us better tell the stories of latino grassroots movements hinojosa told religion news service we know very little about latino and latina religious leaders that were prophets that were religious radicals people who stood up to faith and justice hinojosa added in chicago the young lords with the help of seminary students seized mccormick theological seminary which was affiliated with the united presbyterian church in the lincoln park neighborhood just before midnight on may 14 1969 activists accused seminary leaders of standing idly by as urban renewal displaced low-income families in lincoln park hinojosa writes the young lords and other groups inhabited seminary buildings until may 18 while they negotiated with the schools leaders and demanded that the seminary which had raised millions of dollars for campus development fund low-income housing and legal aid as well as facilities for day care and cultural centers months later on christmas eve in los angeles católicos por la raza staged a demonstration outside the wealthy st basil catholic church where then-cardinal james francis mcintyre was presiding at midnight mass they sought to confront mcintyre about what they said was the catholic churchs neglect of the poor and the lack of mexican american representation in the institution undercover law enforcement officers acting as ushers tried to keep them out but as hinojosa recounts the crowd outside st basil chanted let the poor people in! let the poor people in! eventually several were arrested in new york three days later the young lords took over first spanish united methodist church in east harlem shutting the doors with railroad spikes after parishioners left church grounds hinojosa writes in mid-february of that year the mexican american youth organization took over the vacant christ presbyterian church in houston after church leaders denied the groups proposal to use the space to provide social services for the neighborhood while occupying the church for almost three weeks the group organized a breakfast program that fed 40 kids a day and offered art and chicano history classesde la gente peoples church and transformed the building into a community space and medical treatment area where organizers served breakfast held art classes and informed residents about lead poisoning the occupation which garnered significant media and celebrity attention ended in early january 1970 after a judge ordered the group to leave although these occupations were short-lived hinojosa said these movements shouldnt be discounted he details how the occupation in chicago secured funding for a legal aid office a health clinic at armitage methodist church and a proposal for low-income housing in lincoln park the demonstration outside st basil in los angeles hinojosa writes opened the doors for religious reformers within the church citing the work of author johanna fernández hinojosa notes the young lords occupation in east harlem became the staging ground for a ‘nuyorican identity adding that to this day the first spanish united methodist church is offering mutual aid and food pantry programs that the young lords embodied and in houston presbyterian leaders committed to helping immigrants and continue to do so today according to hinojosa to hinojosa these histories are also personal the son of a pastor hinojosa grew up in an evangelical mennonite church a working-class parish that valued mutual aid which hinojosa described as poor people helping poor people as a graduate student at the university of houston hinojosa was immersed in chicano history but said he wondered where is religion though the work i do as a historian is to really try to uncover the stories of people like the folks that i grew up with in that church hinojosa added he learned about activists such as lydia lopez who after taking part in the demonstration outside st basil helped lead the sanctuary movement in los angeles hinojosa also spotlights felipe luciano of the young lords raised pentecostal he would cite the new testament to scold church leaders who rejected their social services plans for behaving like the pharisees of jesus day i saw how much these young people put into their vision this wasnt just reckless this was very strategic and collective intellectual work and street work that i just found really inspiring hinojosa said originally published here by religion news service faculty news
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news history peeps: april hatfield associate professor july 15 2021 history peeps: april hatfield associate professor dr hatfield in michigan while dr hatfield calls texas home and studies the caribbean she says snow is my favored habitat! dr april hatfields interest in history began in her fifth-grade social studies classroom in toledo ohio dr hatfields fifth-grade teacher was a former civil rights activist who imparted a passion for justice to her students dr hatfield states that when mrs fields discussed her participation in marches i got the depth and strength of the african american community she had grown up in and it awakened dr hatfields interest in the oppression people had experienced in other times and places although dr hatfield initially majored in biology at duke university a freshman western civilization course rekindled her interest dr hatfield admits she became hooked after taking two classes in african american history her interest grew into a fascination with the ways that ideas about race developed during the colonial period and shaped the subsequent evolution of the united states today dr hatfield encourages students to ask questions that matter she views history as a collaborative project in which teachers and learners alike seek to answer fundamental questions about the past she particularly loves to teach the undergraduate research seminars hy 280 and hy 481 from fledgling ideas to polished essays the process of helping students navigate their way is a joy their end-of-term presentations are especially delightful watching them present their papers with a sense of wonder and pride at the end of the semester is dr hatfields favorite part of teaching she muses they do some really great research and analysis to what historical figure would dr hatfield like to say howdy given a chance she would love to meet brixida maria de la concepción a free woman of multiracial heritage whom henry morgan captured and sold into slavery when he and his crew ransacked spanish panama in 1671 trained as a midwife and enslaved on a jamaican sugar plantation she risked a daring escape to cartagena de indias (in present-day colombia) at the age of twenty spanish officials there recognized her spanish citizenship and granted her freedom dr hatfield asserts its people like that i want to talk to we only know a little about hershe never wrote anything downbut she saw the world! she beams and adds i want to understand the caribbean from her perspective (jennifer wells 24) faculty history peeps
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news dr elizabeth cobbs and colleagues encourage americans to invent goals for the next 100 years july 7 2021 dr elizabeth cobbs and colleagues encourage americans to invent goals for the next 100 years cobbs douglas brinkley and ambassador david robinson publish article in the hill citing woodrow wilsons fourteen points click link to read article: https://thehillcom/opinion/international/561488-shift-away-from-outdated-security-paradigms-a-new-fourteen-points-for faculty news
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news four a&m professors contribute to 2021 c-span survey on the presidents the most of any us faculty july 1 2021 four a&m professors contribute to 2021 c-span survey on the presidents the most of any us faculty professors terry anderson elizabeth cobbs jason parker and david vaught of the department of history at texas a&m university contribute to the 2021 c-span survey on the presidents https://wwwc-spanorg/presidentsurvey2021/page=participants faculty news
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news david vaught on the history of baseball june 30 2021 david vaught on the history of baseball graphic by dana dang '23 by mia mercer ‘23 david vaught a professor in the department of history in texas a&m universitys college of liberal arts researches rural history and baseball in 2013 he published the farmers game: baseball in rural america which highlights the history of baseball in relation to the rural aspects of america we sat down with vaught to discuss the baseball origins debate the sports rural roots and some of vaughts favorite moments in baseball history this interview which has been condensed and edited for clarity may inspire you to grab your own glove bat and ball before heading outside this baseball season baseball historians often debate the true origins of the game in your professional opinion what is the origin of baseball in america baseball historians are obsessed with that question however it is a nebulous question because it really depends on how far youre willing to stretch the meaning of baseball people have found either the word baseball or some sort of drawing that looks like somebody holding a bat or something going so far as prehistoric times most people believe the game evolved from two games; rounders and cricket in the 1840s there were various baseball-like games that were played the most well-known was called townball which itself was played by a whole variety of different rules and its debatable whether or not someone today without going into the details of that game would recognize it as baseball i think as to direct connections theres one historian who dismissed all this perhaps rightly and he said that trying to find the origins of baseball is like trying to find the origins of fire but that doesnt stop people from looking most people also agree that the game as we know it was first played popularly in new york city in the 1840s and 1850s not by the exact same rules as today but we would recognize it its not until the 1880s or so that most of the rules are the sort of uniformly adopted to the game that we know today which included the geometry of the game; the 90 feet between the bases and 60 feet 6 inches from the batting plate to the pitchers mound those kinds of things with a few minor exceptions the game was in place to me its more important to focus on the development of baseball as a game through the years and decades than it is to somehow locate its exact origin its more important because you can get so obsessed with finding the origin how does baseball reflect the nature of rural and small-town life baseball is seen largely as a city game and for good reason thats where games have been played professionally since the 1870s i found almost by accident that farmers as early as before the abner doubleday story adored baseball or baseball-like games before 1839 even today baseball captures the essence of the american rural experience whether or not people even realize that people think of baseball today in agrarian terms abner doubleday in cooperstown kevin costner in ‘the field of dreams we associate the game with nostalgia pastoral flights of fancy that sort of thing even today we live in a virtually non-rural culture but it is still expressed through baseball where else other than a major league ballpark does someone sitting in the middle of a row of thirty seats pass a $20 bill down through the many different hands – black white brown male female gay straight – to the hotdog man with the complete and total expectation that they will get back not only the hotdog but every last penny of change that innate trust and sense of cooperation are rooted in our agrarian heritage dating back to the days before the market complicated farmers lives it epitomizes what thomas jefferson thought a nation of farmers would become why did farmers play baseball farmers played baseball on the one hand simply because it was a pleasant way to spend their free time farmers work really hard and typically all day monday through friday and at least half a day on saturday and more than that during certain peak periods so it was a pleasant way to spend a sunday afternoon to spend time with the family and your neighbors alike theres also a much deeper and complex reason that farmers enjoyed the game and i think its that the game became an expression of the way that farmers perceive their day-to-day reality this was particularly true as market-oriented agriculture became predominant as early as the early 19th century and certainly by the mid 19th century so as that happened farmers lives became increasingly defined by skill competitiveness and chance with all three of these things farmers appealed to baseball because the game demands a skill since one gets better and better the more they play the game; competitiveness the game is full of rules that players follow in a sort of winner takes all attitude; and also of course chance you know the game itself and rules and actions all happen spontaneously how does baseball relate to agriculture and farm life by skill competitiveness and chance skill in that farmers had to learn not just how to grow their crops but how to maximize their yields competitiveness in that they had a sort of insatiable appetite for achievement in this modern evolving world to maximize their profits and then chance in that their lives were just one big gamble every year they began to gamble on the weather on the yield of their crops and had to gamble on the price they would get on their crops which was completely out of their control do baseballs rural roots help explain its enduring popularity yes today theres not much ‘rural to speak of and farms are corporate-oriented and the like but again the notion that people still think about baseball in terms of rural imagery whether they know it or not still very much persists what is baseballs role in american cultural history it plays an immense role since baseball is so ingrained into american culture especially after world war ii baseball was the game but now the game is losing that popularity as time goes on for a variety of reasons the game even today has almost an antiquated look to it and theres lots of time during the games where nothing really happens in comparison to football and basketball baseball doesnt really work on television as much as football and basketball baseball is more of a nap game for television since people know its losing its popularity every year now they try to change rules to make the game go faster have more home runs hit and the like and real hard-core fans like myself think that these things are ruining the game in that regard why is it important to know the history of baseball especially the parts of that history that you explore in your book its largely american history and in fact its sort of reversed baseball regardless of what its origins were is clearly an american game in its development now it is enjoyed and played all over the world so its uniquely american but also a worldwide phenomenon how has baseball helped ease the painful realities of the decline in rural american history i hit that in my book when i talk about this teeny weeny town called milroy minnesota in the middle of nowhere it must be about 200 miles west of the twin cities and 200 miles east of sioux falls south dakota in the post-wwii period this little town of about 200 people had an amateur baseball team and amateur baseball was a really big deal in minnesota during this time in 1950 they won the state championship at the same time as their win agriculture and rural life in the area were in steep decline it actually had been since the 1920s for a variety of reasons these are all farmers who are on the team and it was clearly the most important thing in their lives you know when youre living in a long economic decline you dont really know youre in it i mean you can tell maybe that things were better 10 or 15 years ago but you dont really feel it every year but from a historians standpoint and this is somewhat reflective of america in general the rural life was in steep decline and baseball gave these people something to make them feel good about themselves and their lives what are some of your favorite moments in baseball history the easy answer to that is whenever the giants beat the dodgers those are my favorite moments in baseball history and im talking about every single time im from northern california and i grew up a passionate giants fan ever since i can remember two of the biggest moments in that history are in 1951 when the giants beat the dodgers in a dramatic home run playoff in the ninth inning and when they also beat the dodgers again in a national league playoff game in 1962 by scoring four runs in the ninth inning who are some of your favorite players throughout baseball history well growing up in the 60s my hero was willie mccovey who was the first baseman for the giants and a hall of fame player i tried to walk like him swing like him do everything like him i also really like gaylord perry the notorious spitball pitcher for the giants in fact im writing a biography about him that will be out soon faculty news
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news dr angela hudson publishes article in the summer 2021 issue of journal of social history june 21 2021 dr angela hudson publishes article in the summer 2021 issue of journal of social history dr angela hudsons most recent article the indian doctress in the nineteenth-century united states: race medicine and labor is now out in print (it has been available online for a while) in the summer 2021 issue of the journal of social history this article focuses on native and non-native women who worked in the indian doctress occupation in the nineteenth-century united states it argues that such women fused caregiving skills with popular assumptions about indigenous anti-modernity to make a very modern living one goal of angelas article is to shed new light on histories of medicine and womens labor but it also aims to highlight ways that american indians and their resources (including medicinal knowledge and commodified images) so often seen as casualties of american modernity are in fact constitutive of it free access to the article is here https://academicoupcom/jsh/advance-article/doi/101093/jsh/shaa022/5864184guestaccesskey=37db18ea-7777-4abc-b0b3-58f4addae027 faculty news
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news history peeps: david hudson instructional professor and associate graduate director june 21 2021 history peeps: david hudson instructional professor and associate graduate director then – july 1983 now – 2021 dr david hudson came a long way to join the history department at texas a&m as a child he was entranced by the rich legacy of past generations that he saw scattered across the british landscape he particularly recalls the historical sites at which his father loved to stop on any family trip they were common in devon and south lancashire where dr hudson grew up before attending the university of bristol although he considered studying for the catholic priesthood in bristol he met his future wife an american who captured his heart overturned his career plans and put him on a trajectory to arrive in texas in 1991 texas prompted some culture shocks (and occasionally still does) but dr hudson acclimated by rediscovering his early love of british and irish history he earned his masters at sam houston state and then his doctorate at texas a&m university in 1998 dr hudson joined the teaching faculty later that year as an instructor and undergraduate advisor his personal connection with british and irish history has long fascinated students off campus dr hudson enjoys woodworking and makes beautiful bookcases to hold his ever-growing book collection with its picturesque outdoor spaces warmth and friendliness texas is now dr hudsons home while the united kingdom and ireland feel increasingly distant to what historical figure would dr hudson like to say howdy given the chance here his roots beckon and he mentions hugh oneill the earl of tyrone and last great earl of the old irish clans before the tudor conquest if they had a common language in which to communicate dr hudson would have quite a few questions about the relationship between ireland and britain for this puzzling man he is certain that the answers would go far to further improve his and his students understanding of the past (kaitlyn ross) faculty history peeps
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news history peeps: aggie alumnus kyle ryman june 2 2021 history peeps: aggie alumnus kyle ryman in spring 2011 kyle ryman led a platoon on a search for bomb-making components in southern afghanistan mr ryman recalls it was a great mission and the platoon really bonded over it l-r: jimmy poston platoon sergeant; donald thompson weapons squad leader; and captain kyle ryman platoon leader aggie alumnus kyle ryman class of 2009 decided to join the military during his junior year in high school motivated by tom cruises heroic character in the film top gun and by the events of 9/11 mr ryman felt compelled to volunteer texas a&m provided mr ryman with the college experience he craved and one of the best rotc programs available for students who planned to become military officers initially an engineering major mr ryman switched in the fall semester of his sophomore year to explore his passion for military history mr ryman notes that his experiences in the history department at texas a&m were invaluable for his later career as an army officer under dr brian linns guidance mr ryman took classes focused on counterinsurgency they taught him the historical importance of relationships between officers and local villagers that he later applied to his experiences serving in afghanistan as he rose to the rank of captain mr ryman commanded large groups of soldiersas many as 300 troops at a time for two years he also served as an aide-de-camp for an army general at both fort campbell and in afghanistan in 2020 mr ryman graduated as one of the top students from the university of texas school of law in austin he says his history degree from texas a&m helped him to excel as an undergraduate mr ryman had learned to read and sift complex information to assess its significance he notes that these critical thinking skills paved the way for success at texas law his history degree also allowed him to see how laws often have unanticipated consequences that ripple outward throughout society to what historical figure would kyle ryman like to say howdy if given a chance mr ryman answers he would want to meet general george marshall army chief of staff during world war ii mr ryman describes general marshall as the epitome of the army officer who served humbly and had a peerless capacity for solving complex organizational problems marshall was an extraordinary man who kept the allied forces together during an extraordinary time (jennifer wells 24) history peeps
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news daniel bare (phd 2017) publishes first book may 22 2021 daniel bare (phd 2017) publishes first book dr daniel bare a 2017 hist phd also under dr hinojosa who is an assistant professor of religious studies here at texas a&m has just published black fundamentalists: conservative christianity and racial identity in the segregation era from new york university press which began as a dissertation here in our department the web like for the book is https://nyupressorg/9781479803262/black-fundamentalists/ congratulations daniel on the publication of your first monograph! books faculty news
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news grajales wins 2021-22 fellowship may 21 2021 grajales wins 2021-22 fellowship manny grajales just won a $25 000 one-year non-residential dissertation fellowship from the louisville institute which funds religious studies scholarship throughout north america for his dissertation under dr hinojosa that explores puerto rican anti-war movements from the 1940s through the 1970s and how they were informed by different faith communities congratulations manny on this prestigious fellowship! awards news
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news history peeps: jonathan carroll graduate student may 17 2021 history peeps: jonathan carroll graduate student jonathan carroll a third-year phd student in the texas a&m history department has had an adventurous and unexpected trek from his rural small town in celbridge ireland to his new home in college station texas mr carroll reminisces i took a total gamble i packed up everything i owned which wasnt much mostly books (not even academic books) and i shipped it all on a slow boat to texas his trajectory had been circuitous jonathan carroll left school at 19 returned at 23 became a commissioned officer in the irish army earned degrees in both history and law at maynooth universitygraduating at the top of his law-school classand enjoyed a successful career in university administration what motivated him to start anew i had questions carroll says an unquenched appetite for intellectual stimulation and an enthusiasm for military history prompted his trans-atlantic voyage to parts unknown he says he chose texas a&m because of its strength in military history: i looked for the best game in town and here i am mr carroll wants his work as a historian to serve a greater purpose he calls history the golden thread that permeates everything he hopes to illuminate nuances in history and advance knowledge in the field in the classroom he aims to ignite student interest he wants undergraduate students to think criticallyto understand hows and whysto make informed thoughtful decisions about their wider world to what historical figure jonathan carroll would like to say howdy given the chance he would love to meet star trek creator producer and writer gene roddenberry roddenberry wrote the iconic television series during the turbulent 1960s and mr carroll would be curious to suss out the origin of roddenberrys vision of a world free from racism and gender discrimination where the future showed human potential as something really really good to jonathan carroll roddenberrys dream is both fascinating and inspiring (jennifer wells 24) history peeps uncategorized
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news history peeps: brian m linn ralph r thomas professor in liberal arts may 3 2021 history peeps: brian m linn ralph r thomas professor in liberal arts professor brian linn believes history is madeor at least writtenby those who show up even if its 500 words a day moving the project forwardeven if you know those 500 words are all going to get thrown away the next day just keeping at it thats how you write books he says born in hawaii before it became the 50th state dr linn learned the value of hard work at an early age at 16 he took a job with a construction company drilling 40-foot holes for core samples to determine construction feasibility in hawaiis volcanic terrain in the process he earned a union card and learned self-discipline dr linn reflects that the job instilled in him a work ethic and an understanding that most of the job is just showing up dr linn attributes his success to his wife diane the two married just before he began graduate school in 1979 dr linn states emphatically shes more responsible for my career than anyone else dianes work as a licensed clinical social worker allowed dr linn to pursue his graduate studies debt-free since then diane has also been his first and best editor from articles to books of his academic work dr linn says he is most proud of writing the history of the us philippine war though he privately admits that it is his students who really make him smile there are some graduate students out there that are a source of great pride he says adding with a wry grin though i wouldnt want to tell them that dr linn reflects ive had a lot of fun doing this stuff to what historical figure he would like to say howdy to given the chance dr linn answers the question with a story theres a guy named william lassiter that no ones ever heard of he begins lassiter was a west point graduate and artillery officer who served in every conflict from the spanish-american war to world war ii yet never bought into any of the nonsense dr linn says with amusement and admiration it fits that brian linn would want to meet someone who thinks critically about the worldsomeone practical hard-working and wise (jennifer wells 24) history peeps
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news history undergraduate essay prize winners april 23 2021 history undergraduate essay prize winners congratulations to elizabeth crisp dana lamkin and jimmy ardoin the winners of our departments annual undergraduate paper prize! their fascinating essays are a tribute to the wonderful and highly original historical research our students are engaged in each semester! our first prize winner elizabeth crisp (hist 481 with prof hatfield) who wrote a paper titled floridian confusion: inconsistencies in colonial british and spanish maps of florida elizabeths essay was remarkable for two reasons one it persuasively demonstrated that native american military power and geographic knowledge became the crucial factors shaping colonial mapmaking and imperial planning in both london and madrid and two the paper cleverly and creatively told its story by eschewing traditional primary sources in favor of maps and other forms of cartographic imagery our second prize winner dana lamkin (hist 303 with prof hudson) who wrote a paper titled where the west begins this exceptionally well-written essay examined the transformation of the fort worth stockyards into a tourist destination during the 1970s and 1980s the committee praised danas paper for its insightful attention to the way city leaders reimagined (and fictionalized) the history of the west amplifying the voices and struggles of some while erasing the lives of others our third prize winner jimmy ardoin (hist 469 with prof erin wood) who wrote a paper titled el bogotazo and la chusma ardoins essay examined the aftermath of the 1948 assassination of jorge gaitán a prominent colombian political leader rather than simply take biased media accounts of the subsequent rioting at their word ardoin used oral histories of those chaotic events to paint a rich and nuanced portrait of latin americas political history from the bottom up news
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news jonathan brunstedt wins summer neh april 23 2021 jonathan brunstedt wins summer neh jonathan brunstedt has won an neh summer stipend fellowship for his second book project on the entangled cultural representation of the us-vietnam (1961-1975) and the soviet-afghan (1979-1989) wars! this is a highly competitive fellowship supporting full-time work for two months jonathan will use this fellowship to study how both wars as historical analogies shaped political identity jonathan pursues the social political and cultural ramifications of this analogizing on both sides of the iron curtain finding a transnational soviet vietnam narrative throughout the 1980s this seemingly irresistible historical parallel provided a framework for americans and soviet russians to negotiate both the meaning of these two conflicts and their countries place in the world hastening the ussrs collapse and fueling the revival of an american exceptionalism that outlived the cold war faculty news
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news history peeps: troy bickham professor of history april 15 2021 history peeps: troy bickham professor of history professor troy bickham has a talent for making people feel welcome his openness to experience curiosity about the world around him and sense of humor make it easy for others to open up whether chatting about politics in the early american republic the joys and perils of puppy parenthood or the hot and sweaty process of boiling forty gallons of tree sap to make one gallon of maple syrup conversations have a natural and easy flow his ability to connect with others has shaped his career as a historian for the better part of a decade dr bickham worked overseas in various administrative roles at texas a&m in qatar his positions have taken him to forty countries and every continent except antarctica in turn he has brought american history to global audiences dr bickham notes with delight the many aggie traditions that the qatar campus celebrated during his tenure students who wore maroon on thursdays got a warm krispy kreme doughnut during grilling with the deans he and other faculty barbequed hamburgers on the quad using an enormous texas-made smoker a historian of britain and the british empire and elected member of the royal historical society dr bickham hopes his students learn to see history through multiple perspectives rather than focus exclusively on well-known documents or figures he encourages them to dig deep to recover and spotlight voices usually excluded from the written record he wants students to glean the historical experiences of as many people as possibleand recognize the significance of ordinary peoples day-to-day lives to what historical figure would troy bickham like to say howdy given the chance dr bickham muses that the conversational nature of cooking interests him he says that would be fascinatingto spend an afternoon cooking a meal preparing it at the fire and everything else and eating it with an ordinary woman from any period of history thats early modern or earlier in their time together hed like to ask whats she cooking how did she do that whats she worried about whats her life story [by jennifer wells 24] history peeps
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news honoring women throughout history april 9 2021 honoring women throughout history the national womens history museum will be the 20th museum in the smithsonians collection mcnamara and hernandez said they are thrilled to see its creation and are excited about how it will educate the public by mia mercer ‘23 sonia hernandez sarah mcnamara by mia mercer ‘23 the stimulus bill that was signed in december 2020 not only provided aid to families struggling during the coronavirus pandemic but also approved the creation of a smithsonian museum dedicated solely to women in order to learn more about womens history and how the creation of the american museum of womens history will affect our society the college of liberal arts talked to historians sonia hernandez and sarah mcnamara to get their insight on the subject through these interviews which have been condensed and edited for clarity we learned a little about the history and some of the women these aggie historians hope to see on display soon in washington dc what does womens history month mean to you mcnamara: i see womens history month as essential to our national and global understanding of the way women have shaped the world in which we live popular conceptions of history often overlook the influence of women or erase women fully if someone were to ask the average person about a particular moment in history and in turn that person closed their eyes the odds that they would envision a woman is low but women make and have made history womens history month brings attention to this fact its important to remember however that womens history is not a singular story women like all people experience the world in relation to their class race ethnicity and politics womens history month is not a celebration of one history of womanhood but the history of many women whose lives intersect women have the ability to both empower each other and oppress each other this reality is a part of womens history and a crucial component of womens history month who are the women in history who have influenced you the most hernandez: my grandmothers and mother had an enormous influence on me as they lived during challenging moments but overcame so much with so little both my paternal and maternal grandmother were ranch women who were quite self-reliant; they cared for animals grew their own crops took care of large families my mother was a seamstress who sewed other peoples clothes for almost 20 years working from home while she only received up to a third-grade education she taught me the values of respect work and standing up for myself with respect to ‘better-known women id say women like jovita idar ida b wells and other lesser-known women such as reynalda gonzalez parra idar and wells raised awareness of the horrific practice of lynching mexican-origin and african american people and fought to find ways to end that violence this is crucial as violence was not just enacted by racist vigilantes violence was too often endorsed by the state via the use of elite law enforcement agents such as the texas rangers mcnamara: the women who influence me and id venture to say influence many people are those whose names most do not know– the women of our families and the women of our communities i am a scholar of latina histories in the us south a topic few researched and a topic with little popular understanding the history i examined in my first book emerges from the stories i heard at the dinner table i grew up learning about the women in my family who immigrated to florida from cuba and spain who worked in factories who protested the rise of fascism and who rose as labor and political activists these women my ancestors did these things between the turn of the twentieth century and the 1950s– a period not typically understood as the pinnacle of women-driven political influence and power the work of these women did not preclude them from being mothers daughters aunts and friends but it meant that the stereotype of women entering the us workforce during wwii is more a convenient trope than a reality it is stories like these those that may not be remembered as important that truly shape the world we live in and who we are how have women in history influenced your life today hernandez: id like to point out the case of reynalda gonzalez parra who was a co-founder of the tampico mexico branch of the casa del obrero mundial (the house of the global worker) which was an organization that resembled the goals of the iww (industrial workers of the world co-founded by lucy parsons in chicago) gonzalez parra was an educator influenced by the ideas of barcelones francisco ferrer who promoted the idea of gender equity via an educational model informed by the basic idea that girls and boys should be taught the same things beginning at an early age this was known as the ‘escuelas racionalistas gonzalez parra practiced such ideas and did not simply preach them she participated in school excursions to factories in mexico city during the early 20th century to allow children to witness workers experiences firsthand she was the lone female delegate at the second national workers congress held in tampico in 1917 her ideas reached women from the united states via the sharing of newspapers across borders to do the things that gonzalez parra did during this time period was quite remarkable; she was ahead of her time and gave me the courage to do the things that are right even when all odds are against you mcnamara: you know those shirts that say i am my ancestors wildest dream it is that ethos that influences my life i would not be a professor if women in the past had not blazed that trail for me even the idea that women can be experts and authorities is relatively new and not something everyone accepts the women who inspire my life did not necessarily do things you may see as important but they did advocate for themselves and fight to be heard for example dont underestimate the woman who disagrees with the loudest man at the dinner table the same goes for the young woman in a college classroom who dared to raise her hand and disagree with someone else im sure youve been there it takes courage to speak your mind i like to think that it is the compilation of these seemingly insignificant decisions that guide my life and my choices in big ways why do you think the creation of this museum is necessary if at all hernandez: i am absolutely thrilled that congress approved both a smithsonian womens history museum and a smithsonian national museum of the american latino reflecting upon historical moments figures and historical processes helps us all be better equipped to deal with contemporary issues and challenges learning about the myriad contributions of two misrepresented and underrepresented groups in american history is learning about american history in a fuller more comprehensive way us history is complex with dark chapters as well as episodes of triumph successes and hope knowledge about our past in all of its facets and complexities not only makes us more aware of the different actors and moments that make up our nations history but prepares us to listen to different viewpoints mcnamara: the creation of this museum is essential it has the ability if done well to reshape popular conceptions of womens influences on national histories as a historian there is nothing that i see more clearly than the power that museums and monuments have on peoples believed knowledge of history museums that have inaccurate or poor historical interpretation and monuments that obscure reality are particularly damaging because they promote a version of the past (not history) that is based on myth rather than sound research professional historians are rarely consulted on monument creation and museums rarely employ professional historians the smithsonian operates by a different standard and professional historians are typically involved in the curation and design process this museum is an opportunity to create a powerful museum of womens history that does not essentialize the experiences of women to one narrative or celebrate a few big names there are models of how to do this well some of them on the national mall and i hope those involved in the creation of the museum follow these models of curation to be clear the womens history museum is the result of decades of advocacy by womens historians womens rights activists and women politicians while the 2020 stimulus granted the federal money and support the drive to create this museum has been a long process not only is the museum necessary but it is also overdue how do you think this museum will benefit the public hernandez: museums in my opinion reflect the cultural values of a community; a museum featuring the many voices of women who have left a mark on this country is to legitimize women to recognize their presence to make them visible its like getting that long-awaited stamp of approval imagine what these institutions will represent for future children to grow up in a country with dedicated funding and dedicated spaces for these communities this will go a long way in helping kids grow up with a different idea about groups of people long seen as peripheral to big history mcnamara: the womens history museum presents an opportunity to see women as central to the history of the united states however the benefit of the museum in terms of the knowledge visitors gain depends on the curation and design of the museum if done well this museum will have an unparalleled influence on popular knowledge of womens histories what do you hope the museum visitors will take away from visiting the museum hernandez: i hope the visitors will take away a sense of connection a sense of broader knowledge of a more diverse group of american historical actors a sense of belonging mcnamara: i hope visitors walk away from the museum with four core lessons first that women have always worked second for as long as women have been able to become pregnant women have controlled their reproductive lives third those women have always been involved in political decisions and finally that women is not a singular category or a singular story a womans race class ethnicity shape their experiences choices and lives for example last year was the centennial of the passing of the nineteenth amendment but the simple passage of this amendment did not make it possible for all women to vote for example in states like texas discriminatory laws such as poll taxes and the threat of extralegal violence made it nearly impossible for most black women and many latinas to vote in the state it took the passage of the civil rights act and the voting rights act to change this this reality means that while white women can celebrate the 100 years of suffrage that will not be a reality for many women of color until 2065 i hope these nuances are a part of the museum if you were going to visit the museum what would you look forward to seeing most hernandez: i would look forward to seeing little-known women connections between regional womens activities/histories with greater national moments/histories firm connections between women from disparate communities but who have all contributed and formed part of this greater narrative of american history mcnamara: i would look forward to a museum that is diverse and representative of the varied experiences of womanhood there is a myth that all by virtue of being a woman that all women unite and empower each other equally while at times this is true oftentimes it is not women can unite on the basis of being women but women can also oppress other women i hope the museum does not shy away from stories of labor movements immigration racism and sexism the most recent smithsonian added to the national mall–the national museum of african american history and culture– is absolutely phenomenal but what makes it so good is that it was designed to immerse the visitor in a history that is factual and grounded in sound research a visit to this museum has the ability to leave a visitor feeling empowered saddened enlightened and uncomfortable at the same time because the history told in this museum is not intended to gloss over portions of us history that we often try to hide histories of triumph have power as do those of trauma i hope the national womens history museum remembers to call on the expertise of the many us womens historians throughout the nation to create a museum that celebrates women in the plural rather than one definition of woman– even if that makes some uncomfortable who are some prominent figures that you would like to see exemplified in the museum why mcnamara: id like to see a history of women that is more than a history of big names id love to see those like emma tenayuca (a labor organizer from texas) luisa moreno (a labor organizer from guatemala who traveled and organized women throughout the us) ida b wells (the famed african american journalist from mississippi who waged a national campaign against the lynching of black men) pauli murray (lawyer civil and womens rights activist episcopal priest and writer) and so many more as the museum takes on histories of world war ii i hope the stories of japanese-american women in us internment camps are as present as the testimonies of many rosie riveters my hope is that a visitor leaves the museum seeing themselves in the story that is told and that they learn what it is like to live a life unlike their own what movements do you think should be showcased in the museum why hernandez: i would like to see work experience before world war ii (as popular misconception is that women did not work for wages before world war ii) especially work performed at home for wages various cultural groups engaged in suffrage women in politics and science womens diversity in the humanities and social sciences and women who had an impact across geo-political borders mcnamara: first and foremost the labor movement movements for labor-based equality are essential to womens history when i say labor i do not mean simply the fight for equal pay– although this is part of it– but also the fight for womens right to have control over their labor their bodies and their work in the twentieth century women who were active in labor unions during the 1930s went on to be leaders in the civil rights and womens rights movements understanding these intersections is important next i hope the movement for reproductive justice is included in the museum sometimes people are afraid to discuss this history because it is such a contentious component of our present-day politics but if we think about this movement historically that controversy falls away women in early america controlled their reproductive lives just as those in the present seek to do there is nothing new about this topic the history and research are there it is up to consider it seriously even if it makes some uncomfortable how do you think this museum will teach others about womens successes and struggles throughout history hernandez: it will leave a lasting legacy on all of us i think as it will help to highlight womens accomplishments and struggles today and in years past mcnamara: a person does not have to add an element to the periodic table to make their life successful or worthy of inclusion in a museum i hope the museum teaches visitors that the decision of an enslaved woman who refused to work in the field one day was as powerful as the women who led the feminist movement in the 1960s success cannot be measured by a singular metric i hope visitors learn the many ways women succeeded failed thrived resisted and influenced the nation thats a tall order but thats a museum id love to visit the college at work department of history womens history month womens history museum faculty news
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news katherine unterman – talks about her research from arts & humanities fellowship april 1 2021 katherine unterman – talks about her research from arts & humanities fellowship katherine unterman associate professor department of history college of liberal arts studied the effects of a 1901 supreme court ruling that the constitution does not fully apply to american citizens living in the five populated us territories division of research – 2016 arts & humanities fellows: https://vprtamuedu/initiate-research/arts-and-humanities-fellows/2016-fellows awards faculty news
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news history peeps: mary w johnson executive assistant ii april 1 2021 history peeps: mary w johnson executive assistant ii mary johnson has literally seen it all supporting history faculty and students since 1978 ms johnson started as a clerk-typist preparing book manuscripts in the days before faculty had their own computers when the department was in the academic building she now heads an administrative staff of four people in the glasscock building and has acted as the executive assistant to five different chairs of the department when she briefly left campus to take a job in bryan in 1985 department chair dr larry hill personally tracked her down and convinced her to come back in 1990 local to the area having grown up in somerville and established her family in college station mary johnson has helped hundreds of students and faculty make the transition to texas a&m its the people in the history department and the excitement of campus life that keep her motivated mary johnson is also an avid athlete and can regularly be found at the gym or in flourish pilates classes she played softball for many years as shortstop and third base and was a dedicated member of the history departments intermural team organized by grad students in the 1990s that athleticism appears to run in the family her granddaughter now competes at the national level with thunder elite cheerleading and you will often find mary johnson cheering from in the stands to what historical figure would ms johnson like to say howdy given the chance mary johnson turns to literature for inspiration and maya angelou tops her list she would love to hear some of her favorite poems recited by maya angelou herselfperhaps still i risein the writers rich melodic voice (by kaitlyn ross ‘23) history peeps
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news history peeps: dr carlos k blanton department chair march 17 2021 history peeps: dr carlos k blanton department chair we all want a place where we belong where we feel welcomed and valued dr carlos blanton found his when he arrived at texas a&m university as a junior faculty member in 2001 and discovered his peeps for twenty years he has grown alongside them through good times and bad last year six months before the covid-19 pandemic hit he stepped into the role of leader on the brink of a whirlwind that has since demanded constant vigilanceand yet he still makes time for students and colleagues to drop in for a chat on work life or the latest feats of his beloved dallas cowboys at the departments yearly thanksgiving luncheon carlos blanton always seems to be at the liveliest table sharing stories and laughs with anyone who takes a seat with a phd in history from rice dr blanton is a passionate advocate for better representation of the authentic american southwest he has published books on the strange career of bilingual education and the long fight for mexican american integration within the department he helped develop the latinx/mexican american research cluster alongside professors armando alonzo and lisa ramos it has since grown to include professors sonia hernandez felipe hinojosa and sarah mcnamara his own scholarship has been recognized in the intersecting fields of education chicana/chicano history and american studies to what historical figure would dr blanton like to say howdy given the chance he finds it impossible to pick just oneand since he is chair he gets three! he would most like to meet presidents abraham lincoln franklin delano roosevelt and lyndon baines johnson all three led the united states at times of massive uncertainty but each was a beacon of hope who moved us towards a greater sense of human equality despite their flaws like them dr blanton encourages us to strive towards our highest ideals as scholars while finding and supporting our peeps to maintain the welcoming community at texas a&m (by kaitlyn ross 23) history peeps blanton peeps profile
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news remembering betty miller unterberger texas a&ms first female professor march 9 2021 remembering betty miller unterberger texas a&ms first female professor dr unterberger was a pioneer for women in higher education through determination and hard work she overcame the obstacles she encountered and became the first woman named full professor at texas a&m by mia mercer ‘23 the late betty miller unterberger was a pioneer she was kind dedicated to her studies and in 1968 she made history as texas a&m universitys first full female professor unterberger spent her career excelling in the history department and helping others also realize their full potential shes known worldwide for being one of the founders of the society for historians of american foreign relations (shafr) but shes best remembered at texas a&m for her work with honors students her legacy was cemented on campus in 2004 when the betty m unterberger award for outstanding service to honors education was created in recognition of her significant contribution to the growth and development of honors education dr unterberger was a strong personality who was accomplished and self-assured her friend and fellow texas a&m history professor terry anderson said shed always tell me how much she loved the aggies she really enjoyed her time at texas a&m unterbergers interest in history began at syracuse university after taking a citizenship course from marguerite j fisher the only female professor unterberger had in college she pursued a bachelors degree in history and political science she completed her undergraduate degrees in 1943 and received her masters in 1946 from harvard university although unterberger is remembered for her many successes she was no stranger to challenges as a woman living in the twentieth century she constantly encountered sexism and sarcasm throughout her education and career despite this unterberger persevered she received her phd from duke university in 1950 and published her first book americas siberian expedition 1918-1920: a study of national policy in 1956 dr unterberger shrugged off sexism pretty well and fought it in her own way anderson shared during her graduate education she was often asked what she was doing in a profession not having children such comments hurt her but they also increased her inner strength and resolve in 1970 texas a&m began its transition from an all-male military school to the more inclusive institution of higher education it is today unterberger was initially hesitant to teach in aggieland however earl rudder the university president at the time convinced her that she was needed for more than her gender he shared that the university was calling on her to help internationalize the history departments curriculum and develop a graduate program recognition of her work as a scholar was the key to bringing unterberger to campus to begin her 36-year career at texas a&m and to building a better history department for all future aggies she loved teaching and making students think and consider other views anderson explained she was demanding and expected her students to read and be prepared for the class discussion and shed always tell me and others how much she appreciated the aggies unterberger made an immediate impact on the university she kept busy winning teaching awards (including the honor of regents professor) founding shafr educating students about both the united states and the world and publishing dozens of articles and scholarly works her work was extremely influential and she was asked to serve on many national advisory committees including the cia until she retired in 2004 dr unterberger was a path-breaker in our profession but much more anderson wrote in her obituary in 2012 her warm smile passion for learning and steady determination meant that betty led by her own example she enhanced our profession–and our lives faculty news uncategorized
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news albert broussard: building a better world with black history february 26 2021 albert broussard: building a better world with black history by amber francis ‘22 for many in the realm of academia and research it is easy to get lost in the endless sea of faculty members and others itching to make their mark the same cannot be said for one of texas a&m universitys most beloved and distinguished professors albert broussard a true trailblazer of black history pioneering an education in black history broussard wanted to be a teacher for as long as he could remember initially hoping to be a high school teacher but upon attending stanford as an undergraduate broussard was encouraged to attend graduate school i took my first black history course in 1970 at stanford when black history was just being introduced into college curriculums as were african-american studies programs he explained it was something i increasingly became interested in after that i wasnt sure i wanted to teach high school any longer trying to continue an education in black history was initially a difficult task as there were very few graduate schools that taught the subject but a breakthrough came during broussards senior year at stanford when a professor recommended duke university citing a young black professor there who was training students both black and white in black and african-american history duke also housed a sizable community of black graduate students many more than broussard has ever seen in his 36 years at texas a&m; when he received his phd in 1977 he was among the first three black students to complete the program click here to read the full article from college of liberal arts events faculty news uncategorized
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news renewed efforts to place harriet tubman on americas $20 bill february 9 2021 renewed efforts to place harriet tubman on americas $20 bill elizabeth cobbs is interviewed about the renewed effort to place harriet tubman on america's $20 bill in celebration of the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote elizabeth cobbs is interviewed about the renewed effort to place harriet tubman on americas $20 bill in celebration of the 100th anniversary of womens right to vote cobbs is author of the tubman command a historical novel about the combahee river raid of 1863 click here to listen to the interview faculty news
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news evan haefali edits new book against popery: britain empire & anticatholicism february 3 2021 evan haefali edits new book against popery: britain empire & anticatholicism although commonly regarded as a prejudice against roman catholics and their religion anti-popery is both more complex and far more historically significant than this common conception would suggest as the essays collected in this volume demonstrate anti-popery is a powerful lens through which to interpret the culture and politics of the british-american world in early modern england opposition to tyranny and corruption associated with the papacy could spark violent conflicts not only between protestants and catholics but among protestants themselves yet anti-popery had a capacity for inclusion as well and contributed to the growth and stability of the first british empire combining the religious and political concerns of the protestant empire into a powerful (if occasionally unpredictable) ideology anti-popery affords an effective framework for analyzing and explaining anglo-american politics especially since it figured prominently in the american revolution as well as others taking an interdisciplinary approach written by scholars from both sides of the atlantic working in history literature art history and political science the essays in against popery cover three centuries of english scottish irish early american and imperial history between the early sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries more comprehensive inclusive and far-reaching than earlier studies this volume represents a major turning point summing up earlier work and laying a broad foundation for future scholarship across disciplinary lines click here to read complete article faculty news
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news sonia hernandez wins 2020 chancellors fellowship february 2 2021 sonia hernandez wins 2020 chancellors fellowship texas a&m university announces 2020 edges fellows the award for mid-career faculty is aimed at investing in talent and retaining promising researchers and educators by brandon v webb texas a&m university office of provost communications…october 7 2020 nineteen distinguished texas a&m university faculty have been honored as 2020 chancellor enhancing development and generating excellence in scholarship (edges) fellows launched in 2019 edges fellowships were developed with resources from the texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp to honor incentivize and boost mid-career faculty at the associate or early full professor rank who are making significant marks in their discipline the recognition highlights texas a&ms intentional commitment to intensively support retain and recognize faculty with significant and sustained accomplishments and the promise of continued high-impact scholarship these awards recognize the priority of texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp to develop and support faculty members with national and international acclaim said provost and executive vice president carol a fierke the honorees are scholars with careers on-track to make high-impact contributions to enhance the state and nation leading to national and international recognition edges fellows retain the right to use the title throughout their tenure as faculty members in good standing at texas a&m read complete article: https://todaytamuedu/2020/10/07/texas-am-university-announces-2020-edges-fellows/ news uncategorized
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news brian mcallister linn dissertation research fellowship in military history january 6 2021 brian mcallister linn dissertation research fellowship in military history the department of history at texas a&m is very pleased to announce the creation of the brian mcallister linn dissertation research fellowship in military history this award will provide funds for graduate students in the department to pursue dissertation research on war and the military institutions that wage it in all periods of american military history the award has been funded by a gift from dr michael and sue morris mike completed his doctoral dissertation in history in 2020 and is now an assistant professor of military history at the school of advanced warfighting marine corps university he began work on his phd after retiring from the united states marine corps as a colonel in 2015 he also holds degrees from national defense university the us army war college american military university marine corps universitys school of advanced warfighting studies and the united states naval academy this fellowship honors the career and achievements of dr brian m linn the ralph r thomas professor in liberal arts dr linn is a past president of the society for military history and the recipient of fellowships and awards including a john simon guggenheim fellowship a woodrow wilson fellowship and an olin fellowship at yale university in addition to honoring professor linn this gift highlights the long-standing commitment of the department of history to providing high-quality training in military history and the tradition of educating graduate students who use their historical training in public service awards news
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news fall 2020 doctoral commencement december 16 2020 fall 2020 doctoral commencement congratulations to our four new phds: neil dimmitt (linn) lunar bases to linebacker: air force thought during the vietnam war 1960–1973 mike morris (linn) waging war in i corps: iii marine amphibious force headquarters in vietnam 1965–1971 dale weeks (kamphoefner) civil warrior: cherokee chief john rosss defense of us constitutional law and indian sovereignty during the american civil war micah wright (kirkendall) puerto rico and us empire in the caribbean 1898-1936 dale weeks was also the fall doctoral commencement speaker and shares his journey to a phd click here to read article news uncategorized
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news angela hudson wins 2020 arrington-prucha essay prize december 15 2020 angela hudson wins 2020 arrington-prucha essay prize dr angela hudson has been awarded the 2020 arrington-prucha prize from the western history association for her essay there is no mormon trail of tears: roots removals and reconstructions the arrington-prucha prize is awarded to the best essay on the religious history of the american west with a $500 cash prize the whas announcement is here https://wwwwesternhistoryorg/awards/arrington-prucha there is no mormon trail of tears was published in 2019 as a part of the collection reconstruction and mormon america edited by brian q cannon and clyde a milner with the university of oklahoma press https://oupresscom/books/15219041/reconstruction-and-mormon-america professor hudson argues that despite superficial similarities and coincidental timing the mid-19th century removal of native americans from their eastern homelands and the exodus of persecuted mormons are not equivalent popular narratives notwithstanding decoupling these two episodes requires an acknowledgement of mormon complicity in settler colonial practices and an understanding of indian removal as an essential pillar of american expansion not an aberration faculty news uncategorized
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news rohrbaugh speaks at huntington library december 14 2020 rohrbaugh speaks at huntington library collin rohrbaugh a doctoral student in the history department at texas a&m university speaks at huntington library on the cactus and the star: mirabeau lamar new mexico and state formation in the republic of texas https://dornsifeuscedu/assets/sites/73/docs/borderlands_fall_2020_flyerpdf news uncategorized
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news elizabeth cobbs on ai and the history and future of work november 13 2020 elizabeth cobbs on ai and the history and future of work elizabeth cobbs won an emmy and telly award for this new public television documentary cyberwork and the american dream this documentary looks at the impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on the future of work since the industrial revolution new technology has increased wealth freedom and life expectancy but it has also destroyed outdated businesses and automated jobs how can the us best prepare for the challenges of this new technological disruption news uncategorized
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news stephen riegg interviewed on the new books network september 28 2020 stephen riegg interviewed on the new books network stephen riegg russias entangled embrace the tsarist empire and the armenians 1801-1914 cornell university press 2020 august 28 2020 steven seegel russias entangled embrace: the tsarist empire and the armenians 1801-1914 (cornell university press 2020) traces the relationship between the romanov state and the armenian diaspora that populated russias territorial fringes and navigated the tsarist empires metropolitan centers by engaging the ongoing debates about imperial structures that were simultaneously symbiotic and hierarchically ordered stephen badalyan riegg helps us to understand how for armenians and some other subjects imperial rule represented not hypothetical clear-cut alternatives but simultaneous messy realities he examines why and how russian architects of empire imagined armenians as being politically desirable these circumstances included the familiarity of their faith perceived degree of social political or cultural integration and their actual or potential contributions to the states varied priorities based on extensive research in the archives of st petersburg moscow and yerevan russias entangled embrace reveals that the russian government relied on armenians to build its empire in the caucasus and beyond analyzing the complexities of this imperial relationship―beyond the reductive question of whether russia was a friend or foe to armenians―allows us to study the methods of tsarist imperialism in the context of diasporic distribution interimperial conflict and alliance nationalism and religious and economic identity stephen badalyan riegg is a texas a&m arts and humanities fellow for 2020-23 he can be reached at sriegg@tamuedu click here to listen to the interview steven seegel is professor of history at the university of northern colorado share/like this: click to share on facebook (opens in new window) click to share on twitter (opens in new window) click to share on linkedin (opens in new window) news uncategorized
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news to teach in person or not: that is the question september 3 2020 to teach in person or not: that is the question jonathan coopersmith from the department of history discusses returning to the classroom during a pandemic by jonathan coopersmith covid-19 destroyed the old normal with its daunting but familiar challenges for higher education including a broken financial model massive student debt low graduation rates and poorly prepared students the reality is that there is no new normal nor is anything approaching certainty likely in the next one or two years except much greater financial pressure consider this an opportunity to rethink how to reshape higher education learning and organization because those will happen uncertainty abounds: while thousands of scientists work on vaccines we learn more about how much we do not understand about the covid-19 virus daily for university professors students staff and administrators the short-term question is whether or not to have in-person classroom and/or online learning during the fall 2020 term some universities have already announced plans to remain online (eg the cal state system) or resume face-to-face teaching (eg brown university) most colleges and universities are delaying such decisions as late as possible both to develop feasibility plans but also to gain greater clarity about the broader public and economic health of the country my institution texas a&m university is discussing a range of options but its goal is to give each student at least one in-person class the arguments for the resumption of classroom teaching are compelling: as even the supreme court recognized in the 1950 grotesque segregation case mclauren v oklahoma being with other students comprises a large part of the college experience both students and faculty prefer classrooms over zooming social distancing protocols can reduce the risk of infection the personal and societal costs of delaying a traditional education are huge economically a semester let alone a year of online education could devastate colleges as well as their communities how dangerous will covid-19 be at this point there is no effective treatment let alone a vaccine even the most optimistic schedule for a vaccine begins in 2021 not this fall in the united states your chances of infection and death increase significantly if you are older than 65 black or hispanic or otherwise socially vulnerable; in a nursing home meat processing plant or prison; or have preexisting medical conditions enough exceptions exist to those categories to concern the cautious how much risk is tolerable for your family for your colleagues for your students how much risk would you consider acceptable to impose on others as parents how much risk is acceptable for our own children the united states is conducting fifty experiments in reducing its social distancing as i write this article by the time you read this we may know if a predicted second wave of infections has evolved if the situation is as bad as some epidemiological models predict expect that higher education will default to online learning if the situation is more moderate then the discussion about reopening with some in-person classes will continue what can faculty do three lines of action suggest themselves: ● discuss fall teaching options; ● improve your online teaching skills and ● strategize about the future of higher education regardless of how the federal and state governments react to the future of covid-19 we should and must be active participants in ensuring current and future university students receive a quality education at a minimum we should be discussing teaching options and risks for this fall with our administration colleagues staff and students any classroom teaching policy needs to discuss options for handling outbreaks of covid-19 including targeted isolation frequent testing shutting down the campus (again) apart from the if issue of whether we should teach in-person classes (and there are strong moral arguments against) we must be involved in the then – traditional and hybrid classes how to provide and enforce social distancing and other protective measures (including testing and contact tracing) and the myriad of policies and details needed to make the fall semester better than the end of the spring texas a&m intends to expand the use of classrooms from 9 to 5 to 8 to 8 and on saturdays like ut a&m will start in mid-august and end classes at thanksgiving to minimize student travel i ended the semester impressed with our it staff and unimpressed with my online efforts a reaction generally shared by many students and most faculty regardless of whether we want to only teach in-person classes learning to teach better online this summer would be a good use of our time indeed many ideas to improve online learning apply equally well to classroom teaching i intend to work with colleagues students it staff and a&ms center for teaching excellence dont have a center go online and look – many centers exist and they freely reference each others webpages finally make no mistake covid-19 will significantly reshape american higher education because it generated a financial tsunami heading our way revenues and expenses are going in opposing directions teaching online generates significant costs as do efforts to reduce covid-19 transmission revenues will decrease significantly as the number of higher paying international and out-of-state students drops public colleges and universities will face severe pressure from state governments which must balance their budgets the drop in oil prices resulting both from decreased demand and the price war among saudi arabia russia and the united states will cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the permanent university fund even before covid-19 declining american birthrates and other factors were forcing some smaller financially weaker institutes to merge or close now expect those numbers to grow like so many other facets of society higher education is undergoing an unprecedented stress test whose consequences are only emerging higher education will change: for some provocative thoughts read scott galloway and george gee to shape that future faculty need to participate in these discussions at institutional state and national level citations (all the hyperlinks) fall teaching https://wwwaauporg/news/aft-and-aaup-principles-higher-education-response-covid-19#xsri0rnkii4 https://wwwaauporg/news/statement-covid-19-and-faculty-role-decision-making#xsrjcrnkii5 https://wwwinsidehigheredcom/admissions/article/2020/05/20/survey-results-15-fall-scenarios-suggest-what-students-want https://wwwnytimescom/2020/05/19/us/college-fall-2020-coronavirushtml https://wwwinsidehigheredcom/views/2020/05/21/rush-reopen-colleges-fall-ignores-harsh-scientific-and-ethical-realities-opinion https://svicdcgov/factsheethtml improving online learning https://ctetamuedu http://wwwahadigitalorg/wiki/indexphp https://wwwbrownedu/sheridan/teaching-learning-resources/teaching-resources/classroom-practices/learning-contexts/discussions/tips https://edtechteacherorg/apps-and-tools future of higher education https://nymagcom/intelligencer/2020/05/scott-galloway-future-of-collegehtml https://wwwinsidehigheredcom/views/2020/05/19/longer-term-questions-colleges-should-be-asking-response-pandemic-opinion https://wwwforbescom/sites/michaelhorn/2018/12/13/will-half-of-all-colleges-really-close-in-the-next-decade/#3c2bd0e852e5 https://wwwwgbhorg/news/education/2020/04/07/struggling-colleges-face-financial-nightmare-with-students-and-classes-off-campus https://wwwchroniclecom/article/this-is-an-existential-time/248907/ originally posted at texas association of college teachers news coopersmith covid-19
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news sarah mcnamara named mellon emerging faculty leader july 13 2020 sarah mcnamara named mellon emerging faculty leader sarah mcnamara by rachel knight ‘18 editors note: the board of the woodrow wilson national foundation unanimously voted to change its name the interim name is the ww foundation for more information see see the foundations faq page the ww national fellowship foundation selected 10 recipients of the mellon emerging faculty leader awards (mefl) for 2020 among those selected is sarah mcnamara assistant professor of history and core faculty in latinx & mexican american studies in the college of liberal arts at texas a&m university the award supports junior faculty whose research focuses on contemporary american history politics culture and society those chosen for the award are committed to the creation of an inclusive campus community for underrepresented students and scholars mcnamaras research examining the dissonance between federal immigration policy and grassroots activism across the twentieth century make her an exceptional choice for the award the mefl will support research on my second book project daring to dream: latina activisms and immigration policy in the us mcnamara explained the anchor of this study is the story of latinas who intersected organizing spaces like the highlander center the democratic party and national immigrant rights organizations but later rejected the tactics and platforms of all these women instead took on policy politicians and the for-profit deportation industry through independent performative actions that achieved successes traditional forms of lobbying did not mcnamara pointed out that her upcoming book is intended for both academic and popular audiences thus creating a more inclusive understanding of the topic she also intends to take her research beyond the written word to make it more accessible to everyone as i examine why and how some of the most audacious organizing for immigration reform has been led by latinas i envision amplifying their voices and experiences by producing a podcast that showcases the oral histories and events at the heart of this story mcnamara said the mefl award allows mcnamara to spend more time on research by providing a 12-month stipend of $17 500 as she works toward tenure the ww national fellowship foundation intends to free up this time so scholars can both engage in and build support for systems networks and affinity groups that make scholars fields and campuses more inclusive when texas a&m provost and executive vice president carol fierke heard mcnamara had been named a 2020 mefl recipient she sent her congratulations to mcnamara i thank you for your commitment to supporting texas a&m university in our goal of enhancing the campus community for underrepresented students and scholars fierke said i look forward to hearing more about your research teaching and service work right now students are demanding a true commitment to a more inclusive texas a&m and people across the nation are demanding change to institutional power structures mcnamaras research has the potential to contribute to both groups goals both my academic work and my commitment to students on campus seek to dismantle structural racism and compounding inequalities by asking us as people who share space in a nation and a university community to examine and recognize historical systems of oppression that control our present she explained if these structures could be created they can also be dismantled by confronting our histories honestly and working to do better the mefl award is unique because it recognizes both mcnamaras scholarship and her commitment to inclusivity through student mentorship teaching and professional services im honored to receive the mefl she said as a latina scholar one thing that drives me to do the work i do is a desire to expand academic understanding of latinidad while amplifying the voices of latinx and marginalized communities this award recognizes my professionally visible research and the portion of my work that is often unrecognizedmy commitment to students and diversifying the profession news history sarah mcnamara
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news it takes a long time to vote july 12 2020 it takes a long time to vote voters in lexington kentucky waited more than 90 minutes to vote on june 23 by jonathan coopersmith professor of history editors note: this story was originally published by the conversation read the original article here no citizen should have to wait more than 30 minutes to vote declared a 2014 federal report on how to conduct elections that report was responding to the long lines in the 2012 presidential election when more than 5 million americans were forced to wait longer than an hour to cast their ballots the 2016 election seemed better: the average wait to vote nationwide was 19 minutes that average however hid wide variations between states – vermont had the shortest waits florida the longest – and more importantly race voters in all-black neighborhoods had longer waits than those in all-white neighborhoods and were 74% more likely to wait more than half an hour in 2018 turnout increased 39% compared with 2014 marking the first time since 1914 that half of eligible voters had participated in a nonpresidential election that in itself led to some delays as polling places dealt with more people than they had expected regardless of reasons twice as many voters – 6% – reported waiting more than 30 minutes in 2018 than in 2014 however no federal law governs wait times nearly two-thirds of voters in 2012 and three-quarters in 2018 waited less than 10 minutes but long wait times are a chronic problem primarily for latino and black voters in precincts with high minority populations high population and low incomes delays at polling places are just the latest barrier to black americans ability to vote because like other americans they cannot wait possibly hours to vote while jobs or children at home demand their presence the countrys long troubled history of racist voting practices include poll taxes literacy tests and more recently photo-identification requirements and voter-list purges all of which hurt poorer less educated people more than they do wealthier and better educated people in 1965 congress tried to fix those problems by passing the voting rights act which required states with histories of voter discrimination to get federal approval before changing their voting rules the goal was to ensure the new rules wouldnt be discriminatory but in 2013 the us supreme court threw out the criteria used to determine that preapproval – so states can make any changes they want to their voting laws with no federal standards or oversight by 2018 those 15 states had closed 1 688 polling places since 2012 racism was again at play: of the 750 sites closed in my state texas 542 were in the 50 counties that had seen the largest increases during those years of black and latino populations in 2018 black and latino voters waited 11 minutes and white voters 9 minutes on average but as the percentage of nonwhite voters in a precinct increased so did wait times – from 5 minutes in districts that were 90% white or more to 32 minutes in districts that were 90% nonwhite or more a way to smoother voting long wait times discourage people from voting – reducing voting by an estimated 500 000 to 700 000 out of 123 million votes in 2012 – and disproportionately affect poorer people with less flexibility at work thats a big number but it is far fewer than the roughly 90 million americans who dont vote at all so far in 2020 voters have seen major delays especially in majority black neighborhoods: the march primary in texas saw long lines at polling places with waits up to six hours forcing officials to extend voting hours to accommodate the crowds in april wisconsin voters had long waits too on june 9 many georgia voters waited between four and eight hours [the conversations newsletter explains whats going on with the coronavirus pandemic subscribe now] kentuckys primary on june 23 went better than many had feared – thanks to bipartisan agreement to allow everyone to vote by mail if they wanted and expanded opportunities to vote in person before election day but still the one polling place open for 600 000 louisville residents including many of the states black voters needed a court order to remain open after the official closing time to accommodate people still waiting in line the coronavirus pandemic has played a role in these delays: the main reason state officials gave for keeping only one polling place open in each county was to limit the number of election workers needed and to discourage in-person voting in favor of voting by mail but the effects of all these changes fall more heavily on black voters shoulders because of the inefficient use of inadequate resources so race is still a factor in how easy it is for people to vote shortening the lines in november as the american public pays more attention to racism the black lives matter movement and similar organizations including black voters matter are calling attention to the importance of voting safely in november – such as voting by mail and expanding early voting there are other ways to reduce delays too including training staff better and making sure equipment works properly – as well as finding ways to have a steady stream of voters throughout the day rather than huge surges in early and late hours one way to encourage people to vote during the work day could be for employers to give workers paid time off to go to the polls there are ways to shorten wait times at the polls – so that someday no voter will have to wait more than 30 minutes to have their voice heard news
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news a message from the history department climate & inclusion committee july 3 2020 a message from the history department climate & inclusion committee we stand in solidarity with black lives matter as well as others fighting for racial justice today we will apply this solidarity to tangible change as we seek to overcome intersecting legacies of racial inequality at texas a&m as historians we know the history of the united states texas and texas a&m is not a story of triumphant progress but a story of unresolved racial trauma racism is a system a structure it lives within our educational economic healthcare environmental legal and political institutions racism intersects with sexism class polarization and other forms of bigotry as scholar-teachers we have an obligation to understand history in all its complexity including the record of violence slavery expropriation and discrimination that continue to ravage our society we call for all aggies to inform themselves and apply that knowledge to create a better nation a stronger texas and a just university standing up to racism requires a collective effort by knowing our history taking responsibility for it and challenging others to understand it we can work towards racial justice in the united states we pledge to work with you as we continue to educate aggies the public and ourselves we believe that an informed citizenry that reckons with its past–including its dark chapters–will demand change to create an equitable just and safe society we stand in solidarity with black lives matter as well as others fighting for racial justice today we will apply this solidarity to tangible change as we seek to overcome intersecting legacies of racial inequality at texas a&m links to useful resources reading recommendations by historians and scholars (these books are also available as ebooks from tamu libraries) michelle alexander the new jim crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness ibram x kendi stamped from the beginning: the definitive history of racist ideas in america ibram x kendi how to be an anti-racist barbara ransby making all lives matter: reimagining freedom in the twenty-first century keenaga-yamahtta taylor from #blacklivesmatter to black liberation reading lists curated by scholars trisha kale reading on race and democracy african american intellectual history society keisha blain eight recommended books by women to understand the uprising ms magazine 13 books on the history of black america for those who really want to learn washington post projects and initiatives 1619 project new york times the pulitzer prize winning project that examined the history of slavery violence and racial oppression in the united states equal justice initiative the equal justice initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the united states to challenging racial and economic injustice and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in american society the marshall project the marshall project is a nonpartisan nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the us criminal justice system we achieve this through award-winning journalism partnerships with other news outlets and public forums in all of our work we strive to educate and enlarge the audience of people who care about the state of criminal justice slave voyages this digital memorial raises questions about the largest slave trades in history and offers access to the documentation available to answer them slavery in the presidents neighborhood the complicated past and the paradoxical relationship between slavery and freedom in the nations capital podcasts codeswitch podcast intersectionality matters in the dark season two: curtis flowers white lies teaching hard history backstory films/documentaries 13th just mercy selma the rape of recy taylor equal justice initiative video library teaching tolerance film kits uncomfortable conversations with a black man thoughts on confederate monuments by scholars keisha blain destroying confederate monuments isnt erasing history its learning from it adam domby the false cause caroline randall williams my body is a confederate monument brian palmer and seth freed wessler the costs of the confederacy sul ross history self-care resources helpful coping resources college of medicine tamu academics for black survival and wellness uncategorized inequality inform yourself learning racial justice resources society
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news former student wins 2020 pulitzer prize in history june 3 2020 former student wins 2020 pulitzer prize in history in his pulitzer prize-winning book texas a&m university former student caleb mcdaniel ‘00 ‘01 (ma) shares henrietta wood's story which sheds light on what life was like for black women in america in the 19th century with hard work dedication and a little help from philanthropists mcdaniel was able to share hennrieta woods inspirational story in his pulitzer prize winning book the story mcdaniel shares in sweet taste of liberty follows the life of henrietta wood who was born into slavery; taken to cincinnati in 1848 and legally freed; abducted and sold back into slavery in 1853; remained enslaved in robertson county near hearne texas throughout the civil war; regained her freedom and returned to cincinnati in 1869; and in 1870 sued the man who abducted her and sold her back into slavery a federal jury awarded her $2 500 which was the largest known amount ever awarded by an american court in restitution for slaverytexas a&m university former student dr caleb mcdaniel ‘00 ‘01 (ma) won the 2020 pulitzer prize in history for his book titled sweet taste of liberty: a true story of slavery and restitution in america the book is full of twists turns compelling characters and unbelievable events that tell woods story like wood mcdaniel has an inspiring story of his own about how he came to write sweet taste of liberty and it started at texas a&m in the college of liberal arts starting a scholastic journey mcdaniel chose to study history at texas a&m because he was offered a presidents endowed scholarship i wouldnt have been able to attend texas a&m without it he shared philanthropic support has been crucial for me throughout my career without mcdaniel woods story may not have been written for scholars and the general public alike; and without financial support from donors mcdaniel wouldnt have been able to begin his scholastic journey that ultimately resulted in sweet taste of liberty i got a great education in the college of liberal arts mcdaniel said [mentors in the college] set me on my path towards the doctorate i still think about classes and advice i received from faculty members like david vaught al broussard april hatfield steve daniel and craig kallendorf when i teach students today at rice university i think back to the teaching that i received at texas a&m and try to pass it on to them mentoring future scholars is a responsibility taken very seriously by dr albert s broussard history professor and cornerstone faculty fellow broussard taught mcdaniel in his upper-level african-american history courses and says he is very proud of mcdaniels achievements as a fellow scholar a mentor is neither a father-figure nor a mother but someone who takes an active interest in the learning and inquisitiveness of his students broussard shared i think it is important to mentor all your students to the degree they are willing to learn and allow themselves to be challenged instead of simply going through the motions i learned decades ago to never underestimate the impact that you as a professor could potentially have on a young mind while mcdaniels professors left an impression on him he was also leaving impressions on faculty members dr james rosenheim emeritus professor of history and former director of the glasscock center for humanities research judged an undergraduate essay contest that mcdaniel participated in his senior year after 20 years i still remember being impressed by dr mcdaniels paper rosenheim explained it seemed perfectly capable of having come from the pen of a graduate student it was far beyond what i had ever encountered from my undergraduates taking an advanced level course and doing primary research mcdaniel mastered the art of using primary sources or first-hand accounts of a topic as a student at texas a&m and used those skills to write his pulitzer prize-winning book the importance of piecing together primary sources to tell the truth of societys past is easily seen in sweet taste of liberty and in slaverys lasting affects on our society today when a professor like caleb mcdaniel writes a pulitzer prize-winning book like sweet taste of liberty hes not just answering questions about the african-american past in us history said carlos kevin blanton department head of history at texas a&m hes also getting at very real issues that we have today when we talk about reparations what we owe to the past and the legacy of slavery slavery doesnt just end its legacy lives on through policies and practices were still arguing over the same issues blanton explained that historians dont just examine the past because they enjoy learning about what happened long ago instead they look to the past to find answers about issues were grappling with in the present this is true of mcdaniels research that ultimately led him to write his latest book though how he landed on woods story is a tale of its own in 2014 i was doing research about enslaved people who were forcibly brought to texas during the civil war mcdaniel said a friend and colleague sent me a newspaper article from the 1870s that featured woods story when i started learning more about her story and how she had eventually returned to cincinnati and filed a lawsuit for restitution it caught my interest and it quickly became clear that it deserved a book all on its own a well-rounded education equals success woods story as told by mcdaniel explores the greater human experience which is what a well-rounded education in liberal arts teaches students to do mcdaniel said his liberal arts education is so versatile partially because of mentors he had in the texas a&m university honors program who encouraged him to take classes in english philosophy and political science in addition to history this encouragement ultimately led mcdaniel to his masters degree in a different liberal arts fieldphilosophy just like faculty in the history department those in the philosophy department at texas a&m were proud to learn of mcdaniels most recent success it is wonderful to be part of a department that has contributed an education in philosophy to such an accomplished scholaran education that seeks to deepen ones sense of the meaning and variety of human experience to allow one to see others and the world in new ways and to develop ones critical analytical and interpretive abilities said ted george department head of philosophy seeing others in new ways through the exploration of the human experience is the key to the importance of sweet taste of liberty according to mcdaniel there are still a lot of myths and misinformation surrounding the mystery of slavery and the civil war even today its important for historians to go back to the primary sources and documents and reconstruct the truth as best we can mcdaniel explained we especially need to find ways to talk about the experiences of enslaved people like wood the archives that we have dont always make it easy to find stories like hers but its really an important part of american history to capture the experiences of women and black women in particular in the 19th century overcoming scholarly challenges piecing together the truth about the past is no small taskwhen mcdaniel began researching woods story he quickly realized uncovering her past would necessitate a lot of travel it required a lot of ‘detective work to piece together her story including looking at archived documents scattered across different states mcdaniel shared there were gaps in her story that couldnt quite be filled otherwise it was also challenging to write about this story in a way that recognized her achievement but not in a way that downplayed the horrors that she endured or the problem that continues for african americans even after emancipation and after her legal victory mcdaniels detective work travel and time taken to write the story in the most compelling and appropriate way were made possible in part by the national endowment for the humanities similar endowments are donated to professors at texas a&m university and play a similar role in these faculty members successes as department head of the history department at texas a&m blanton says there are many opportunities to help support scholars and future scholars alike as the history department continues to expand the way in which we enhance the undergraduate experience there are lots of opportunities to support new discoveries and explorations of the greater human experience blanton said who knows how many pulitzer prizes we can help shape along the way with a little more giving winning a pulitzer prize while mcdaniels former mentors and colleagues expressed great pride in his achievements as a scholar mcdaniel said the real prize is knowing that woods story is finally getting the recognition it deserves to me the greatest outcome of receiving the pulitzer prize is that more people will likely learn about henrietta woods story mcdaniel explained its an honor to her and a credit to her resilience and determination to tell her own story im very happy that the pulitzer board recognized a story like hers as a significant chapter of american history awards news caleb mcdaniel department of history department of philosophy pulitzer prize the college at work
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news the urgency of peaceful protest june 1 2020 the urgency of peaceful protest elizabeth cobbs the melbern g glasscock chair in american history discusses how holding the moral high ground is crucial to advancing a cause in her op-ed for the washington post in this 1963 photo bayard rustin leader of the march on washington poses in new york city (eddie adams) elizabeth cobbs the united states has benefited from a six-decade decline in racial tension now threatened by recent events progress has been uneven and in law enforcement tragically minimal but real gains were made through nonviolent protest while he is less well known than other civil rights leaders pacifist bayard rustin deserves much credit for steering our nation away from its entrenched history of racial oppression he modeled and promoted the most effective methods of resistance one question raised by the killings of ahmaud arbery breonna taylor and george floyd and the uprisings they sparked is: what would bayard rustin do nicknamed bye rustin organized the 1963 march on washington and advised the rev martin luther king jr on the nonviolent techniques that led to generational breakthroughs raised outside philadelphia rustin was influenced by pennsylvanias quaker traditions personified by his quaker grandmother who was the first family member to accept him as gay read the full op-ed at the washington post news cobbs in the media the college at work
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news religion in quarantine: covid-19 sanctuary and the future of american religion may 29 2020 religion in quarantine: covid-19 sanctuary and the future of american religion the following blog post by is an edited excerpt from an essay by department of history's felipe hinojosa that will appear in the networks second ebook project entitled "religion in quarantine: the future of religion in a post-pandemic world" felipe hinojosa the ebook is available for free download at: https://oaktrustlibrarytamuedu/handle/19691/188004 covid-19 sanctuary and the future of american religion by felipe hinojosa i grew up in brownsville texas it is a town perfectly placed on the southernmost tip of texas in a region known as the rio grande valley most of the families have left the neighborhood where i grew up and lincoln park the park i used to cross every day on my way to j t canales elementary is gone flattened by interstate 69 but perhaps one of the biggest and most visible changes is the oddly placed border fence built in the early 2000s as part of the bush administrations move to secure the border the border fence is much more than an eyesore in my hometown it is a failure to see the beauty and the contradictions of border life and while the fence in my hometown and the presidents chatter about building a border wall along the us/mexico border have made things more difficult they have not stopped people from finding a way to connect with and support one another people like mike benavides a school administrator founded the group team brownsville whose members come together to help those seeking asylum in the us in the summer of 2018 team brownsville started taking things like food and other necessary items to the hundreds of asylum seekers from as far away as india cuba colombia bangladesh el salvador and honduras all waiting in the mexican border town of matamoros to present their case to us authorities in 2019 a group of drag queens organized a protest along the us/mexico border in brownsville to voice their opposition to the border wall and to raise money for lgbtq asylum seekers the leader of the group beatrix lestrange aka joe colon-uvalles commented that the goal is to use the beauty of drag art and performance against the hateful racist and xenophobic rhetoric that is being projected unto our communities drag queens from throughout the rio grande valley have since gathered in public parks to proclaim we are here to bring joy positivity beauty drag culture to whatever this is pointing to the border fence (leaños 2019) these heroic acts of resistance are part of a long tradition of resistance along the borderlands and it is this radical tradition and the love that emanates from it that will carry us forward in a covid-19 america let me explain in the 1980s a powerful movement of religious leaders community organizers and activists opened the doors of their churches to provide sanctuary to refugees fleeing war and violence in central america in the years between 1980 and 1983 an estimated 15 million people left their homes in el salvador nicaragua and guatemala to come to the united states the sanctuary movement emerged as a way to offer people a place to stay and many came with hopes of gaining asylum in the united states however gaining asylum status proved difficult the us government categorized immigration from central america as motivated by economic interests rather than a genuine need to escape war and violence for us officials granting asylum to central american refugees also meant an admission of guilt and responsibility for the very violence that us foreign policy helped create and continued to fund (smith 1996 p 162) as a result a majority of refugees were denied asylum this reality lit the fire of sanctuary movement organizers who believed they had a moral obligation to open the doors of their churches and synagogues to give sanctuary my church in brownsville texas participated in this movement iglesia menonita del cordero a mexican american working-class congregation opened its doors to refugees from central america and for a few years housed several hundred people at a time of course i had no clue about what they were experiencing at the time i had no sense of their struggle their worries and certainly no idea of what they had left behind in their home countries but one thing that has stuck with me that i have never forgotten are the faces of the people i met under unimaginable stress and trauma they seemed hopeful to me i clearly remember the leadership of church members who worked around the clock to make sure people were cared for that they had what they needed and that they made contact with their relatives this scene of churches stepping up and opening their doors to offer critical services for refugees and undocumented immigrants was repeated across the country however for their courage religious leaders were surveilled imprisoned and their places of worship deemed criminal these risks that were taken must serve as a model for how religious groups should respond in the midst of this current pandemic in this covid-19 world in which we all now live it will be more important than ever for churches to enact politics of love prepared to serve refugees immigrants small business owners single parents families with sick relatives and people who have lost their jobs because of covid-19 while the social distancing and shelter-in-place orders will ease the economic disaster will remain with us for the foreseeable future it is in the midst of this that history and the sanctuary movement in particular can remind us of the moments when the saints carried us felipe hinojosa is associate professor of history at texas a&m university his teaching and research interests include latina/o and mexican american studies american religion social movements gender and comparative race and ethnicity sources leaños jr r (2019 february 26) texas ‘dragtavist drag queens stage border wall protest npr retrieved from https://wwwnprorg/2019/02/26/697958528/texas-dragtavist-drag-queens-st… smith c (1996) resisting reagan: the us central america peace movement chicago: university of chicago press originally posted here news covid-19 department of history hinojosa in the media the college at work
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news unsung and sung heroes and heroines of black history february 17 2020 unsung and sung heroes and heroines of black history in honor of black history month we reflect on what it means to be african american and how stories of unsung heroes and heroines can inspire us today associate dean and professor of history violet showers johnson do you know about civil rights leaders such as ed nixon or ella baker what about malcolm xs contributions to the african american community often times these people in history can be overshadowed by the larger historical narrative of famous african american leaders in celebrating black history month the college of liberal arts is driven by its commitment to diversity inclusion and belonging for all peoples on campus associate dean and professor of history violet showers johnson demonstrates this commitment through her research johnson studies immigrants of african descent and the multifaceted understanding of african identity in the united states one of her academic intentions is to cast a larger light on the sung heroes and heroines in black history like kobe bryant and rosa parks to the unsung heroes and heroines like jo ann robinson and bayard rustin what then is the african american in order to address the unsung heroes and heroines in black history johnson illustrates the complicated question: what does it mean to be african american one of johnsons most well-read publications addresses this question and comments on the fluctuating nature of african american identity and belonging according to johnson being african american is multi-dimensional and epochal by epochal she means that the discourse on african american identity changes from period to period what it means to be african american during the era of jim crow is different than what it means to be african american in the era of black lives matter said johnson for example during the time of jim crow there were signs that stated colored only which negatively affected the african american conception of belonging in america the signs demonstratively showed that african americans did not belong in the larger american identity however in this current era while there may be no visual signs that state colored only the problem of systemic racism persists today the effects of covert racism are just as brutal as overt racism said johnson why it is important to remember from left to right: martin luther king jr and malcolm x the effects of jim crow laws are one of the many reasons why the civil rights movement occurred and why we celebrate african american identity through black history month johnson states that in remembering black history it is important to recognize black leaders and their pursuits of justice especially the lesser-known efforts of black heroes and heroines the intellectual world goes outside of the center and brings people in from the margins and into the academic conversation johnson said it is recognizing the people on the fringe whose stories have not been shared or told johnson states that there are many reasons why certain black role models and histories are more popular than the others for example martin luther king jr is more widely known than malcolm x because kings identity fits within the american status quo king was a christian advocated for nonviolence and was well-educated; however malcolm x was a muslim advocated for aggressive measures and was educated while in prison while both leaders were popular in their times king rose to prominence because of his ideology and background during the montgomery bus boycott that king came to lead the african american community recognized that it was pragmatic and effective to have leaders that fit certain perceived criteria of the larger american culture said johnson this demonstrates how heroes are evaluated measured and embraced by the majority culture of grave importance kobe bryant in life and in death a cultural figure is created in death the cultural icons life is noted revered and celebrated every group has its heroes and martyrs and death has a way of promoting and producing a cultural icon that transcends the grave said johnson when these tragic events occur in the black community there is a rise of collective spirituality and sense of belonging in the larger american framework kobe bryant is an example of an african american icon who fits several roles within the black community the larger american context and the global arena his death shows what it means to be african american and american kobe bryant is for all america but there are some icons that are just for the black community as they fit within our culture identity and sense of belonging said johnson blacks claim bryant as a role model as much as people from different cultures and countries in many ways black role models can cross cultural and racial boundaries because of their fit into the larger narrative a sense of belonging for johnson black history month shares the stories of well-known and lesser known leaders of the black community for her it goes beyond sharing the stories of peoples who have been marginalized but to embrace the endurance of african americans it is not just about addressing the victimization of african americans but to share stories about our accomplishments resilience and endurance in the midst of oppression as one of the associate deans of the college of liberal arts johnson has insight into the colleges priorities she believes that the college does not adopt a single story narrative but seeks to show the stories of all peoples within the curriculum the college of liberal arts is not just student-centered; it is people-centered said johnson the college of liberal arts is not just student-centered; it is people-centered said johnson she states that the college promotes and develops the betterment of humankind through top-tier research cross-cutting pedagogical methods and sharing the known and unknown stories and histories of all peoples we are committed to diversity and equity for excellence said johnson this includes a commitment to share the stories of unsung heroes and heroines and how they can inspire us today faculty news black history month johnson kobe bryant
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news texas a&m professor david vaught honored by american historians november 26 2019 texas a&m professor david vaught honored by american historians the longtime professor has been designated a distinguished lecturer by the organization of american historians for his scholarly works on labor history and baseball david vaught by keith randall texas a&m university division of marketing & communications texas a&m university history professor david vaught has been designated as distinguished lecturer by the organization of american historians (oah) for his work on american rural history labor history and the history of american baseball vaught is one of 21 new speakers appointed to oahs esteemed distinguished lectureship program he and the other scholars join nearly 600 distinguished lecturers who share their expertise with audiences across the country provide historical context on important topics and headline commemorations and other events i am honored to be appointed an oah distinguished lecturera milestone achievement for a us historian vaught said the appointment provides further evidence of my stature in the discipline and the widespread external recognition of my research and teaching more importantly the appointment recognizes my efforts to appeal not only to an interdisciplinary audience of scholars but to the public as well history in my mind demands nothing lessand baseball provides the perfect vehicle vaught is a longtime professor of history at texas a&m and is the author of four books: the farmers game: baseball in rural america (2013) winner of the 2014 society for american baseball research sabr baseball research award teaching the big class: advice from a history colleague (2011) after the gold rush: tarnished dreams in the sacramento valley (2007) cultivating california: growers specialty crops and labor 1875-1920 (1999) his research has been funded by the national endowment for the humanities and he is a past president of the agricultural history society former head of the history department university distinguished lecturer and recipient of the melbern g glasscock professorship in undergraduate teaching excellence he currently is writing a book with the working title spitter: farmer-pitcher gaylord perry a biography of the notorious hall of famer pitcher who had baseball stardom but suffered failure on the farm during the 1980s agricultural crisis david vaught brings the perspective of a scholar and the love of a fan to his talks on the role of baseball in american history said katherine m finley oah executive director we are honored he is part of our team of distinguished lecturers oah distinguished lecturers agree to donate their speaking fees to the oah and their work in the field is an essential component of the organizations mission to promote excellence in the scholarship teaching and presentation of american history oahs distinguished lecturers provide a vital service to communities libraries museums and universities by increasing public awareness and understanding of the importance of american history this is especially valuable today as our nation faces unique challenges finley said we thank professor vaught for his service to the organization originally posted on todaytamuedu faculty news tamu today vaught
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news shop until you drop in the comfort of your own home november 24 2019 shop until you drop in the comfort of your own home today is cyber monday the monday following thanksgiving promoted by online retailers as a day for exceptional bargains the college of liberal arts sat down with a history professor to discuss how technology shapes our views on shopping by hannah legare 19 its the end of thanksgiving which for many people means deals upon deals (online or in-store) we sat down with jonathan coopersmith of the department of history who researches the importance of froth (speculative likely-to-fail) fraud and fear in emerging technologies to gain an understanding of the history of how technology affects us as consumers this interview has been condensed for length and clarity what is your area of research i am a historian of technology currently researching the importance of froth fraud and fear in emerging technologies how has technology shaped and changed shopping and consumerism technologies historically are an essential factor shaping shopping and consumerism one visible trend has been increasingly fast online ordering and delivery which are expansions of ordering from catalogs and delivery by mail or parcel service less visible are the supply and credit chain technologies that allow stocking of goods in stores as well as online selling just think of the challenges of keeping thousands of items in stock and in the case of groceries fresh its amazing what we take for granted less visible are the supply and credit chain technologies that allow stocking of goods in stores as well as online selling… its amazing what we take for granted what about in regards to black friday or cyber monday thats a triumph of advertising of convincing people of the potential savings (which may not always be real) and the excitement of shopping en masse after thanksgiving how do economists and historians perceive black friday and cyber monday i cannot speak for my colleagues but im impressed by how evolving and flexible these events are giving tuesday was developed as a response to all of the buying by encouraging people to think of charitable and non-profit causes with their consuming economically these days are like football weekends at texas a&m – businesses depend on them for a disproportionate share of their annual profits how did the trends of online shopping arise the concept of distant shopping in the united states really began when congress responding to public pressure from farm groups created rural free delivery (rfd) by the post office in 1896 farmers could petition to have the post office establish delivery routes to farms local stores fearing competition had opposed rfd this enabled mail-order stores like montgomery ward and sears roebuck and company to send millions of catalogs across the us and then mail the received orders directly to recipients homes sears started selling watches in 1888 by catalog and launched its first general catalog in 1894 and really expanded after 1896 it did not open its first store until 1925 to take advantage of the growing spread of the automobile how does cyber monday engage the trend for online shopping what do people prefer online shopping its the lure of the bargain whether real or imagined and fomo – the fear of missing out in many ways it is more convenient: you can do it anytime and with a laptop or cellphone or watch from anywhere you can avoid traffic and crowds you can schedule repeat orders for example i used to go to petco to buy cat food now petco automatically sends a monthly order to my house it still makes money and i pay sales tax but petcos local store loses that sale you can shop from any business with a web presence instead of being limited to what is available in person this is very important for people in rural areas also you get the pleasure of buying something twice – once when you order it and again when it arrives – instead of combining the purchase and the possession at the same time what you do not have is the communal or public shopping experience and local businesses (which may be national or international chains) lose that sale as do related businesses like restaurants online shopping is one reason why some malls are falling some retail stores and chains are shutting and retail employment has decreased recently other causes include automation (eg self-checkout) and normal overexpansion undercapitalization and bad decisions you get the pleasure of buying something twice – once when you order it and again when it arrives – instead of combining the purchase and the possession at the same time coopersmiths study of the history of remote consumerism from ordering out of a catalog to the current online shopping frenzy can help you think about your own financial habits you can keep in mind how the history of the sale affects you as a consumer; or in coopersmiths words the design to get the pleasure of buying something twice and fulfill the lure of the bargain faculty news black friday coopersmith cyber monday thanksgiving
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news hgso conference november 20 2019 hgso conference 11th annual texas a&m history conference the challenge of change february 21-22 2020 the history graduate student organization of texas a&m university is proud to announce our 2020 graduate and undergraduate history student conference the theme for this years conference is the challenge of change our central focus for this conference is to create a […] 11th annual texas a&m history conference the challenge of change february 21-22 2020 the history graduate student organization of texas a&m university is proud to announce our 2020 graduate and undergraduate history student conference the theme for this years conference is the challenge of change our central focus for this conference is to create a scholarly discussion on historical or historiographical change or lack thereof in their respective fields and talk about the challenges and responses that resulted from such shifts call for papers all submissions and correspondence should be submitted to tamuconference2020@gmailcom tamu travel grant conferences events news
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news beyond and before boo: a halloween story october 31 2019 beyond and before boo: a halloween story halloween exists beyond symbols of boo! and scary movies two professors in the college of liberal arts trace halloweens historical and cultural beginnings and explain the concept of liminal spaces in our world and that of the ancients liminal moments are the gaps between the holy and the unholy photo: unsplash by hannah legare 19 when we think of halloween we dont immediately think of the term liminal spaces we think about spooky vibes and the sugar-induced coma we might experience after eating one too many snickers bar a liminal space is the gap between the holy and secular and this is exactly what marked the origins of halloween two professors in the college of liberal arts help us think beyond boo! and candy corn their areas of research from the history department to the religious studies program show the relationship between halloween and liminal spaces and how it evolved to the commercialized holiday we know today not so spooky origins 17th-century tabloid about a monstrous birth of conjoined twins this is an example of tabloids that were written about inexplicable moments in life photo provided by hilaire kallendorf daniel schwartz associate professor in the department of history studies the intersection of the late roman empire and christianity and the christianization of roman territories in late antiquity he calls us to remember when halloween occurs in the year its during a time of significant changes to the weather and the turn of the seasons in essence its the time of the harvest in agrarian societies there were festivals and days devoted to celebrating the coming of the harvest there was very little that did not touch the religious in this time said schwartz these agrarian communities believed the gods were responsible for healthy crops disease and rain it was important for these people to honor the gods in both prosperity and poverty which includes honoring the gods through harvest festivals while harvest festivals were generally universal across most people groups halloweens traditions have strong ties to a specific agrarian society the pre-christian celts these people sought to connect to the supernatural or divine beings that they believed affected their everyday lives the pre-christian celts did all of these religious rites: they lit bonfires they had raucous parties they sacrificed animals and they ate grain from the harvest said schwartz the celtic harvest festivals arguably the early predecessors of halloween tie together a reverence for divine beings and unholy behavior schwartzs recognition of the supernatural in halloweens beginnings is similar to hilaire kallendorfs understanding hilaire kallendorf a professor of hispanic and religious studies researches the many aspects of religious experience especially related to literature and culture one of her classes delves deep into hispanic religions where students learn about monsters evil omens and exorcisms (to name a few topics) kallendorfs grasp of halloween relates to hispanic traditions and cultural elements specifically there are supernatural elements and beliefs in hispanic culture that attempt to explain the unexplainable one example of the unexplainable includes monsters according to kallendorf the word monster comes from a latin verb monstrare which means to show in old spanish tabloids from the 17th-century there were depictions of deformed babies that were viewed to be from monstrous births while modern readers may be distressed at the tabloid 17th-century readers thought these babies were a sign from god showing the parents sin the word ‘monster was loaded with cultural connotations then and now people make relationships between the sacred (god) and the secular (the sign) liminal spaces day of the dead offering with symbolic flowers foods and decorations according to schwartz just about everything gets connected to belief in the supernatural even the word halloween halloween means hallowed evening or more specifically all hallows eve all hallows eve (oct 31) preceded the holy days of all saints day (nov 1) and all souls day (nov 2) these days pay homage to christian martyrs or saints or gods holy people who have passed away and are in heaven for hispanic or latinx people halloween is also the day before día de los muertos (day of the dead) a time of honoring and welcoming the souls of departed loved ones my mexican students are surprised that day of the dead is a fusion of aztec and spanish cultures said kallendorf she surmises that sugar skulls a classic symbol of ofrendas (offerings) are aztec due to evidence of human sacrifice found in aztec ruins similar skeletal decor can be found in modern halloween practices today the mixture of aztec mexican and spanish cultures blends with catholicism and christianity in latinx countries and regions like the pre-christian celts with early halloween practices the day of the dead shows the phenomenon of combining devotion to the divine with more seemingly unholy elements (like skulls on ofrendas) thus when you combine the pre-christian practices dealing with the supernatural harvest festivals connecting to all saints day and all souls day and days honoring the dead with offerings there is the concept of liminal spaces liminal spaces are the gaps between the sacred and the profane schwartz said for example its like when people carve pumpkins people carved pumpkins (or sometimes turnips) lighting them with embers in order to ward off evil spirits the act of carving a pumpkin is a liminal space because it relates the earthly pumpkin with the otherworldly spirits for kallendorf another liminal space is shown when someone visits the grave of a loved one on the day of the dead and lays out food and gifts for them this resembles a shrinking of the gap between the here and the beyond liminal spaces are diminished during the holidays that merge the sacred and the profane like halloween tricks arent always treats trick-or-treating wasnt always asking for candy and dressing up in costumes either in centuries past it was poor people going to lords houses and asking for food drink and money schwartz explained trick-or-treating as a type of giving alms; but while almsgiving there could be a potential threat from the poor to vandalize the property of a stingy lord thus the notion of trick or treat similarly kallendorf and schwartz agree that during these moments of connecting the secular and divine people believed hierarchies of society could be disrupted therefore some sought to overturn social conventions or believed they could get away with petty crime this is where the vague history of pranksterism on halloween originates as well as where fear and anxiety entered the holiday as a society each time there is a moment of crisis in liminal moments we project our anxieties onto them said kallendorf in the 17th-century for example when people examined one of the aforementioned monstrous births they believed it was a warning that something especially something momentous or calamitous was likely to happen it became a tangible representation of their intangible fear these cultural crises affect the way we view halloween it is a sacred and secular holiday a day in which anything can happen more than just boo! today halloween has been mass commercialized which is why we think of candy costumes and scary movies not liminal moments according to schwartz religious and traditional halloween stories and customs were brought over by european immigrants in the 19th-century for example the united states adopted several customs like almsgiving which turned to a cultural creation of trick-or-treating the customs were brought back to europe with less of a religious designation instead demonstrating an american flair and the dollar sign now people all across the world dress in costumes throw lavish halloween parties and spend inordinate amounts of money on pumpkins yet a remembrance of the holidays past and history is helpful to chart how it impacts us today halloween goes beyond boo! and reminds us of liminal spaces and the ever-changing culture we live in the gap between the sacred and the unholy kallendorf said shows that not everything can be explained by reason there are still elements that require faith if we ignore the realm of the mysterious we are denying a big part of who we are as human beings want to learn more from our knowledgeable college of liberal arts professors consider taking history of christianity reformation to present (hist/rels 222) or hispanic religions (hisp/rels 471) to dive deeper into the world of the sacred and secular news black history month halloween hispanic studies history kallendorf schwartz
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news national book month: harriet and the tubman command october 25 2019 national book month: harriet and the tubman command october is national book month and the college of liberal arts will be celebrating all month long! for our last feature we talked with historian elizabeth cobbs about the national conversation surrounding harriet tubman and why american history is needed now more than ever by alix poth 18 young harriet tubman (photo: provided) unfolding history is a never-ending process; there are always new stories to be found fresh perspectives to be seen and old narratives to be more fully recovered elizabeth cobbs melbern g glasscock chair in american history and professor in the department of history once again took hold of this lofty task and told harriet tubmans story like never before in her new novel the tubman command a happy coincidence meant that cobbs novel was published around the same time as the release of the new movie harriet (which comes out on nov 1) both of these mediums however contribute to a larger conversation around tubman instigated by the vote to make her the face of the twenty-dollar bill the vote is what piqued cobbs interest in the first place when the conversation about harriet tubman started i knew only a little bit about her and was wondering ‘why her cobbs said i wanted to know more but found that few historians had written on tubman and none in novel form these questions led cobbs to do what any good historian would do: dig deeper as the idea of a novel formed around tubmans remarkable story cobbs traveled across america to research and experience the same places and settings in which tubman walked she had a rocking story she was a spy a disabled veteran a romantic cobbs said she had an unmatched career and used every tool available to her to make america more free i really came to care for her story celebrating the narratives of national heroes like tubman shouldnt belong to a specific political partys agenda the story of harriet tubman belongs to everyone the tubman command follows the life of tubman and one of her spotlight moments as she leads one of the largest plantation raids in the civil war from the authors website the book paints the scene of a society marked by the civil war: the grave of harriet tubman its may 1863 and america is soaked with blood following massive losses at the battle of chancellorsville the union army is exhausted and outgunned fort sumter looms menacingly guarding the birthplace of the rebellion with underwater mines and artillery in beaufort south carolina one very special woman is hatching a spectacular plan hunted by confederates revered by slaves harriet tubman plots a bold and dangerous expedition behind enemy lines to liberate hundreds of bondsmen recruit them as soldiers and turn the tide a bounty on her head she has given up everything for the noblest cause: a nation of by and for the people cobbs is no stranger to having one foot in the world of academia and another in the world of mainstream audiences something she has always set as a goal in her work similar to her successful novel on alexander hamilton cobbs desired to tell tubmans story in a way that could speak to both scholarly and general audiences at the same time both of these audiences need american history she said its similar to what lin-manuel miranda did with his play hamilton… it encouraged the study of american history you have to engage the hearts and minds of people through stories movies plays to help them also care about the history cobbs on the porch of tubmans home telling the story of historic figures like tubman informs audiences that these heroes were everyday people cobbs said; having them on an unattainable pedestal doesnt do any good tubman was brave because she acted in the face of her fears especially in a period where womens history is still obscure or pushed to the side cobbs said people want to hear about stories like tubmans and now happens to be the right time to share them the liberal arts is at the heart of all of these things cobbs noted how the future will be marked by machines that continue to get better at programming but they will never answer the why why people do the things they do and what they should do instead is the fundamental question of the liberal arts we have to understand the past to notice which trends we should continue and amplify or which trends we need to be careful not to reinforce but the stories have to be told in order to understand the trends cobbs said celebrating the narratives of national heroes like tubman shouldnt belong to a specific political partys agenda the story of harriet tubman belongs to everyone learn more about the story of tubman in the tubman command here and follow along with all of our national book month features books news cobbs history national book month
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news hispanic heritage month: latinx history as us history september 30 2019 hispanic heritage month: latinx history as us history hispanic heritage month is from september 15 to october 15 each year as we are in the middle of the month it is important to remember what this month celebrates and how all histories should be shared the college of liberal arts celebrates hispanic heritage month by hannah legare ‘19 sarah mcnamara photo: provided hispanic heritage month celebrates the ways the countrys hispanic and latinx populations contribute to the american tapestry for many this means watching a film or going to an event; for others this month highlights the experiences and triumphs of a group of people for sarah mcnamara assistant professor of history it is not about highlighting individual experiences for these commemorative months but about reflecting on how these months influence the way we see ourselves as a nation it is about challenging the public to understand latinx history as us history said mcnamara it is about challenging the public to understand latinx history as us history said mcnamara latinx history as us history months like hispanic heritage month remind us that we are all neighbors president lyndon b johnson established hispanic heritage week in 1968 in the wake of the civil rights movement it wasnt long before the weeklong celebration was expanded in 1988 marking the first hispanic heritage month however the idea to honor those with hispanic and latinx heritage was not because of one mans presidency it took social and labor movements like those led by dolores huerta and cesar chavez latinx students in california and mothers from the young lords in new york to draw the publics attention to latinx and hispanic cultures and demand changes to public education this month is personal to many hispanic and latinx communities including mcnamara her family came from cuba to florida to work in the cuban cigar industry growing up her family shared stories about their heritage she heard about the histories of the latinx and hispanic populations but the histories she read about in school did not represent what she learned at home she began to question her relationship with the world and the ways she could make a difference hispanic heritage month emphasizes the stories of people like mcnamara how they are valuable in american culture and history dolores huerta at the msc-scola conference with support from the carlos h cantu fund photo: provided the aggies are we that everyone includes aggies at texas a&m about 23% of the students self-identify as hispanic mcnamara predicts that in the next 10 years texas a&m will be categorized as a hispanic-serving institution it shows that our campus will be a part of a tradition of diversity that was not there over 50 years ago when hispanic heritage month was established our campus demographics are beginning to reflect americas demographics these changes are mirrored in the college of liberal arts as well at texas a&m about 25% of students with liberal arts degrees are hispanic the college of liberal arts promotes understanding at its core mcnamara said students learn about the world holistically not just about themselves but about people who are different from them in the liberal arts core curriculum there are opportunities to celebrate students of diversity and actively learn from them mcnamara encourages all students to go to at least one event this month even though we are halfway through hispanic heritage month there are still multiple avenues for students to learn and grow together we can appreciate the diversity that is at texas a&m for a full list of hispanic heritage month events in aggieland click here faculty news hispanic heritage month history mcnamara
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